That'll be funny right up until a worm gets into some highly cleared officer's laptop and sends out a copy of "OperationChineseFreedom.doc" to his Address Book.
This echos the opinions of some in Canadian industry: "There is little point seeking anti-spammer legislation and enforcement if spam-tolerant countries don't play along".
I thoroughly enjoyed your take on those RIAA blood-sucking bastard
assmonkeys (I'm not a journalist, and if I call them that on my website
I am projected by the "22 year old college student" defence as HardOCP
has dubbed the weblog freedom of speech ruling).
I would like to point out a little something that, although not very
relevant to the US, is a thorn in our side up here in Canada.
I'm talking about a little legal wonder called SOCAN Tariff 22. SOCAN
(The Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada) is
pretty much like a Canadian RIAA, except controlled by the government
(we're almost socialists up here, in case you didn't know, but don't
hold that against me... I didn't vote for those bastards either).
Anyways, Tariff 22 is currently being appealed and for good reasons. It
introduced liability for ISPs for caches of material which violats
copyright, specifically copies of musical recordings of SOCAN artists.
(What is SOCAN:
SOCAN is the Canadian copyright collective for the public performance of
musical works. We administer the performing rights of our members
(composers, lyricists, songwriters and their publishers) and those of
affiliated international societies by licensing the use of their music
in Canada.)
This means that your distributed user-controlled cache-reliant webcast
radio scheme would (currently) land ISPs subject to Canadian law in hot
water. Sucks, doesn't it?
The appeal is getting into full swing as factum are submitted, etc. The
Tariff 22 ruling was based on the appeals court blatantly
misunderstanding caching technology, the nature of the Internet, and the
role that network infrastructure plays in communications, so things look
good for those of us involved in protecting the ISPs' ability to provide
service to Canadian consumers (I'm involved from a technical
standpoint), however the act remains that Tariff 22 is currently on the
books as Canadian law.
I hope that the rabid RIAA legal minions don't pay too much attention to
us up here, because that would be a way for them to go after litigation
targets with really deep pockets... if Verizon thought they had problems
with Court Orders to hand over customer data, wait until they get sued
for merely being an ISP.
Illegality repends on the privacy law in the Netherlands. I have no idea what things are like there, so it could very well be illegal. As far as morality, that entirely depends on what morals one subscribes to, doesn't it?
I'm sure there are many people who think it would be a great moral good if all the spammers in the world had their fingers broken...
That really just supports my point... Microsoft released a (from what I'm told) patch for the SQL vuln that was difficult to apply, etc etc... 6 months before the exploit. Admins didn't apply it, which let Slammer do its damage?
Who do we blame?
Microsoft, for releasing a patch right away that required some clue in admins, who should be testing each and every patch before deploying it in production anyways.
Admins, for not testing the patch, not applying the patch, and not fulfulling their responsibilities of due diligence.
IT managers, for choosing a server platform notorious for security flaws, patches that are worse than the vuln in many cases, and one that even the admins lack trust in the vendor to provide fixes.
I blame the Admins for failing in their responsibilities and the IT managers for choosing ease-of-use and a broken platform/vendor. There isn't a good reason to never apply a patch for a vulnerability in a mission-critical system. That is what labs and tests are for.
As far as I'm concerned, the XBox is a "cheapy PC".
What are the odds of the courts saying the following to Microsoft?
"You sell your systems at a loss... that is a bad business decision, and it is not the court's responsibility to protect you from the consequences of your mistakes. Its a business gamble to rely on sale of an accessory to a product to make that business unit profitable. The consumer owns the product when purchased and has the right to decide how they use it, you are infringing on their rights but limiting that choice. We will not protect your poor business model."
Why does everyone get so uptight about nudity? Its not a big deal. In case you've been living in a bubble, people get naked every day. Golly, some of them even have sex... I bet there are people who are naked and/or having sex right now! Its 2003, isn't it time we grew up as a society and stopped being such prudes?
As far as plot justification goes (I haven't seen the movie yet) there is an existing explanation for why the time travellers need to go sans-clothing. As far as I'm concerned, a movie that gets rated PG means the director/script-writer pulled punches and sacrificed content so the uptight censorship idiots won't get their chastity belts in a knot. The real world features violence, nudity, sex, offensive language and concepts. Deal with it... there is no reason to sanitize and dumb down a story so that the over-sensitive can handle it.
Yes, its called "humor". Perhaps you are familiar with the concept, or need it presented more blatantly. I'll try fart jokes next time.
From what I've heard, if you put the real Warcraft 2 files containing the graphics and so forth in your Freecraft directory, you will not only have the gameplay which Freecraft lifted, but also the graphics... making it nearly identical. I don't really care enough to research this and provide specific links. I don't really enjoy RTS games (which is mostly why I actually don't give Blizzard my money), so I'm not motivated to find out more, so YMMV.
No, its another way of saying "Windows users are still dumb and don't apply patches or basic security best practices despite getting exploited over and over ad nauseum".
Why be subtle about it?
I went to a seminar yesterday wherein a security guy from Microsoft (stop laughing, its not funny yet) extolled the virtures of Windows Server 2003. They have learned their lesson about security and ease-of-use being the only development consideration... guess where they learned it from? All the best practices they have implemented for Server 2003 comes from Linux, Unix, and the Open Source world. "Free How-Tos"! What an innovation!
Now if only someone can teach the MS admins and users to apply the goddamn patches that Microsoft releases! (for an example of what I'm talking about, see anything about the SQL Slammer specifically)
I suppose that means its time for the age-old "Why port if it works in WINE?" question to be raised... wine/winex saved the sanity of many a budding Neverwinter Nights junkie while they waited for Bioware to get around to finishing up the Linux client port.
I know every time I see one of these these lumbering down the road I get confused and think maybe its a roving Blizzard expo, or promotional thing for the next installment of the tired ol' RTS genre.
I wish Blizzard et al would go after Starcraft RV too to protect me and all the other mindless drone comsumers from the risk of confusing two obviously different products with each other... what about Mastercraft boats, Chris*Craft boats, etc? Blizzard sure has a lot of work to do, I'm glad they are looking out for us easily confused consumers.
On a serious note, I think I'll stop buying Blizzard products all together. My entertainment dollars will go to a company with less intellectual property fascists on staff.
Maybe someone could make a SCO FUD story generator, so people can generate even more meaningless coverage of the has-been/never-was trashing itself to death! This sounds like a job for... BBspot!
Unfortunately, they've hardly taken advantage of the SCO comedy: SCO, the New Disease. I expected more.
From what I understand about this stuff in the US, you can be fired with no notice and no severance pay so be careful. No matter what, be prepared to look for another job. I'd think you should do that anyways if management isn't willing to let you bank the time or even hint that they recognize that you are making a special contribution.
Re:The article misses a few things as well.
on
Sun's Last Stand
·
· Score: 1
Weird... I wonder if the laws are the same in Canada. I doubt they are, seeing as our Government tends to like monopolies, especially government initiated ones.
You absolutely aren't alone... I think it is safe to say that SCO is well on its way to being the most hated company in the IT sector. Microsoft, step aside, there is a new whipping boy in town.
Re:The article misses a few things as well.
on
Sun's Last Stand
·
· Score: 1
You were on your way to getting some of the up-mods you are whoring for, until you said this:
"Bad laws, such as those preventing me from buying California wine, and preventing me from running servers on my cable modem, have also played a part."
What law is it, exactly, that stops you from buying wine from California? And what, pray tell, is the bit of law that stops you from running a server on your cable modem?
What stops you from running a server is compliance, i.e., your choice to comply with your cable ISP's terms of service and AUP. Very few if any cable networks were designed for symetrical data transfer. The technology, both cable modem termination systems and the cable plant, are typically designed for bursty traffic, with most of the traffic coming downstream to your PC. It doesn't make sense for cable operators to allocate enough RF channels to the upstream to make it a kick-ass cheap serving pipe.
Indeed... it sickens me to realize I'm actually mostly rooting for Apple on this one. However, I'll still laugh if The Open Group wins this one. Either way, I'm happy.
Slashdot Mirror
That'll be funny right up until a worm gets into some highly cleared officer's laptop and sends out a copy of "OperationChineseFreedom.doc" to his Address Book.
This echos the opinions of some in Canadian industry: "There is little point seeking anti-spammer legislation and enforcement if spam-tolerant countries don't play along".
That was almost as funny as the first time I heard it on South Park.
If that is the case, its time to ditch the segways and buy friggin' STAIRMASTERS.
I thoroughly enjoyed your take on those RIAA blood-sucking bastard assmonkeys (I'm not a journalist, and if I call them that on my website I am projected by the "22 year old college student" defence as HardOCP has dubbed the weblog freedom of speech ruling).
I would like to point out a little something that, although not very relevant to the US, is a thorn in our side up here in Canada.
I'm talking about a little legal wonder called SOCAN Tariff 22. SOCAN (The Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada) is pretty much like a Canadian RIAA, except controlled by the government (we're almost socialists up here, in case you didn't know, but don't hold that against me... I didn't vote for those bastards either). Anyways, Tariff 22 is currently being appealed and for good reasons. It introduced liability for ISPs for caches of material which violats copyright, specifically copies of musical recordings of SOCAN artists.
(What is SOCAN:
SOCAN is the Canadian copyright collective for the public performance of musical works. We administer the performing rights of our members (composers, lyricists, songwriters and their publishers) and those of affiliated international societies by licensing the use of their music in Canada.)
This means that your distributed user-controlled cache-reliant webcast radio scheme would (currently) land ISPs subject to Canadian law in hot water. Sucks, doesn't it?
The appeal is getting into full swing as factum are submitted, etc. The Tariff 22 ruling was based on the appeals court blatantly misunderstanding caching technology, the nature of the Internet, and the role that network infrastructure plays in communications, so things look good for those of us involved in protecting the ISPs' ability to provide service to Canadian consumers (I'm involved from a technical standpoint), however the act remains that Tariff 22 is currently on the books as Canadian law.
Here are some online resources you may find interesting on the subject:
Tariff 22 Intellectual Property laws meet the modern age
SOCAN's Tariff 22 will be the death of Canadian Internet Radio
I hope that the rabid RIAA legal minions don't pay too much attention to us up here, because that would be a way for them to go after litigation targets with really deep pockets... if Verizon thought they had problems with Court Orders to hand over customer data, wait until they get sued for merely being an ISP.
Didn't you get the memo? The RIAA is in the midst of getting the vast majority of /.ers reclassified as criminals.
Getting married may wipe out creative genius, but at least it will also liberate us from our dastardly digital music sharing.
I'm sure there are many people who think it would be a great moral good if all the spammers in the world had their fingers broken...
Who do we blame?
Microsoft, for releasing a patch right away that required some clue in admins, who should be testing each and every patch before deploying it in production anyways.
Admins, for not testing the patch, not applying the patch, and not fulfulling their responsibilities of due diligence.
IT managers, for choosing a server platform notorious for security flaws, patches that are worse than the vuln in many cases, and one that even the admins lack trust in the vendor to provide fixes.
I blame the Admins for failing in their responsibilities and the IT managers for choosing ease-of-use and a broken platform/vendor. There isn't a good reason to never apply a patch for a vulnerability in a mission-critical system. That is what labs and tests are for.
What are the odds of the courts saying the following to Microsoft?
"You sell your systems at a loss... that is a bad business decision, and it is not the court's responsibility to protect you from the consequences of your mistakes. Its a business gamble to rely on sale of an accessory to a product to make that business unit profitable. The consumer owns the product when purchased and has the right to decide how they use it, you are infringing on their rights but limiting that choice. We will not protect your poor business model."
In other words, "suck it up, princess".
As far as plot justification goes (I haven't seen the movie yet) there is an existing explanation for why the time travellers need to go sans-clothing. As far as I'm concerned, a movie that gets rated PG means the director/script-writer pulled punches and sacrificed content so the uptight censorship idiots won't get their chastity belts in a knot. The real world features violence, nudity, sex, offensive language and concepts. Deal with it... there is no reason to sanitize and dumb down a story so that the over-sensitive can handle it.
urpmi mini-HOWTO
TWiki > Main > MandrakeSpecific > UsingUrpmi
From what I've heard, if you put the real Warcraft 2 files containing the graphics and so forth in your Freecraft directory, you will not only have the gameplay which Freecraft lifted, but also the graphics... making it nearly identical. I don't really care enough to research this and provide specific links. I don't really enjoy RTS games (which is mostly why I actually don't give Blizzard my money), so I'm not motivated to find out more, so YMMV.
Why be subtle about it?
I went to a seminar yesterday wherein a security guy from Microsoft (stop laughing, its not funny yet) extolled the virtures of Windows Server 2003. They have learned their lesson about security and ease-of-use being the only development consideration... guess where they learned it from? All the best practices they have implemented for Server 2003 comes from Linux, Unix, and the Open Source world. "Free How-Tos"! What an innovation!
Now if only someone can teach the MS admins and users to apply the goddamn patches that Microsoft releases! (for an example of what I'm talking about, see anything about the SQL Slammer specifically)
I suppose that means its time for the age-old "Why port if it works in WINE?" question to be raised... wine/winex saved the sanity of many a budding Neverwinter Nights junkie while they waited for Bioware to get around to finishing up the Linux client port.
But the power of the operating system is in the mind and capabilities of the user... that is the secret of the UNIX world.
I know every time I see one of these these lumbering down the road I get confused and think maybe its a roving Blizzard expo, or promotional thing for the next installment of the tired ol' RTS genre.
I wish Blizzard et al would go after Starcraft RV too to protect me and all the other mindless drone comsumers from the risk of confusing two obviously different products with each other... what about Mastercraft boats, Chris*Craft boats, etc? Blizzard sure has a lot of work to do, I'm glad they are looking out for us easily confused consumers.
On a serious note, I think I'll stop buying Blizzard products all together. My entertainment dollars will go to a company with less intellectual property fascists on staff.
Unfortunately, they've hardly taken advantage of the SCO comedy: SCO, the New Disease. I expected more.
From what I understand about this stuff in the US, you can be fired with no notice and no severance pay so be careful. No matter what, be prepared to look for another job. I'd think you should do that anyways if management isn't willing to let you bank the time or even hint that they recognize that you are making a special contribution.
Weird... I wonder if the laws are the same in Canada. I doubt they are, seeing as our Government tends to like monopolies, especially government initiated ones.
You absolutely aren't alone... I think it is safe to say that SCO is well on its way to being the most hated company in the IT sector. Microsoft, step aside, there is a new whipping boy in town.
"Bad laws, such as those preventing me from buying California wine, and preventing me from running servers on my cable modem, have also played a part."
What law is it, exactly, that stops you from buying wine from California? And what, pray tell, is the bit of law that stops you from running a server on your cable modem?
What stops you from running a server is compliance, i.e., your choice to comply with your cable ISP's terms of service and AUP. Very few if any cable networks were designed for symetrical data transfer. The technology, both cable modem termination systems and the cable plant, are typically designed for bursty traffic, with most of the traffic coming downstream to your PC. It doesn't make sense for cable operators to allocate enough RF channels to the upstream to make it a kick-ass cheap serving pipe.
I'll wait to see what Michael has to say about your comment before I agree or disagree.
Indeed... it sickens me to realize I'm actually mostly rooting for Apple on this one. However, I'll still laugh if The Open Group wins this one. Either way, I'm happy.
SCO can wither away and die any day now, I'm getting sick of this story...
BTW, there is another movie we can compare the SCO fiasco with: Dumb and Dumber.
You know people who actually used (and still use) Corel Linux? Wow...
I just thought of something. You should keep that quiet, or you might get one of the rabid SCO legal drones after the Corel assets.