I think it is important to distingish between the GPL and the end-user licenses.
The GPL is not an end-user license. It is a distribution license. Unless you are going to be providing copies of some GPL licensed software, or a derivative, there's no need for you to pay any attention to it at all, except for the warranty disclaimer.
The basis for the GPL is quite clear in copyright law. Copyright says you cannot copy something unless you have been given premission by the copyright owner. In most cases you have to contact the copyright owner and send them some money. With GPL software the conditions for getting premission to use the software is convently included with the software.
End-User licenses are contracts that people agree to before using the software. They have less strength because no-one ever reads them and there is often no way to back out of the transaction if you don't agree with the conditions of the contract.
Another important difference is the GPL allows you to distrubute the software, under certain conditions, a right you wouldn't normally have. End-User licenses is almost always about removing rights you would normally have.
My point is that the GPL and End-User licenses are very different kinds of licenses and apply to different situations. Disrespecting End-User licenses does no more to reduce the creditabity of the GPL then to does to reduce the creditabity of a car leasing contract.
The reason the ICANN hasn't been routed around yet is that it has not yet been enough of a problem in the day-to-day operation and usage of the Internet. Domain name scarcity is minor problem, but won't stop someone from putting up a web site. The disbute resolution has been causing problems for parody sites, but that's a small part of the Internet.
Prehaps if these probably start getting worse, alternatives may form.
I haven't really looked in to it, but I suspect you'll find that most of the domains out there are not own by large corporations, but by individuals and small companies. There aren't that many large corporations, and they each probably have several domains, but that is still small compaired to the number of domains out there.
One difference with the Mircosoft case is when they rigged the demo, they where doing it in court. They where clearly commiting prejury. In the Enron case it may be just fraud. In the missle test it was probably just lying.
The content seems consistent with a Slashdot users. Going to the profile on the band's page gives the proper background. The profile say he is working part time for Penn College computer services, but he may have changed jobs and the website has not been updated. It is a similar line of work.
If you're tempted to buy a car solely to go to the grocery store you might be interested in this option: AutoShare. It is a Toronto organization which you join that lets you rent thier cars for a few hours at a time from varies locations in Toronto, usually near subway stations. There are other similar organizations in other cities, including one being set up in Chicago.
This way you can use transit for regualar commuting and have access to a car when transit isn't suited for your trip, like to buy groceries.
I recently released a new version of the open source project I work on (TiMidity for OS/2, see web page). Dispite being a minor update that I didn't think many people would be interrested in I got quite a bit of feedback thanking me for my work. Much more then I ever got before.
The reason was that there was a bug that prevented the program from reading the configuration file properly and they where asking about it. I've put up an update I haven't got any feedback since.
These Linux is hard to install arguments are a red herring. It's true that most users could not install Linux without help, it's also true most users could not install Windows without help. The reason this is not a problem for Windows is that it is preinstalled on most computers, so being hard to install is not an issue.
I wouldn't worry too much about the music. It's usually one of the last things done in a production and probably wasn't ready when they did the ads. They probably just through something together.
The 1973 and 1974 films The Three Musketeers
and The Four Musketeers where shot at the same time. The cast sued because they thought they where only shooting one film.
Most of the people on Slashdot are relatively well educated the sciences. Science is largely about looking at evidence and applying logic and rational thought to see what it means. When that is done to religion it quickly become clear that there is no evidence to support religion and many of the ideas associated with religion.
They do have open minds. They opened thier minds to religion, examined it and rejected it.
As I understand it, TradeMarks expire if they aren't used. That's probably what happened to McLobster.
I remember when the Canadian newspaper, National Post, was about to be launched, thier future competater, The Globe and Mail, trademarked all kinds of names for newspapers not to use them, but to limit the choice of names for the new paper.
Thi s is a Toronto Star article about plans to put filters in Toronto's libraries. I think brings in a perspecive not usually mentioned. Basically the reason they want to add filters is because some teenagers are using the library computers to look at porno. When the librarian ask them not to (a reasonable thing to do, I hope you agree) it has lead to angry confrontations.
I saw something simlar to this last summer at the Playdium in Mississauga, Ontario. It was a fighter where you stand against a blue screen and kick and punch and your charactor would make the same move. Because your game charactor had a fixed set of moves it didn't match your movements precisly, but it worked pretty well.
There are a couple important differences between art and software.
First is creating a consistency vision. When people are cooperating making a large scale software project (like a Operating System) most of them generally what it to do the same thing making it easier to agree on a fundamental design Even if one person wants one feature and another person wants a different feature they can usually both be accommodated without the need to fork. However, if people are cooperating making a large scale art project (like a computer animated TV series) it is subject to a a lot more subjectivity. Some people when the series to go in one direction, some people what it to go in another. Unlike an operating system it much hard to appease both camp without a fork. This would be less of an issue for smaller art projects (like a song) where one person can keep it under control.
Another difference is professionalism. Most people who program open source projects also have a day job programming. Even if it is not open source they still get a lot more skilled then if they where driving a truck as a day job. This means that open source projects are written by skilled professionals, even if they aren't getting paid. I believe there will be always demand for custom business application that will keep programmer employed even if open source takes over. However, if open art takes over I don't see where artists will get their artistic day jobs and gain the level of professionalism needed to make great art. They can't even do what a lot of Linux companies do by making a living off providing support.
Slashdot Mirror
I think it is important to distingish between the GPL and the end-user licenses.
The GPL is not an end-user license. It is a distribution license. Unless you are going to be providing copies of some GPL licensed software, or a derivative, there's no need for you to pay any attention to it at all, except for the warranty disclaimer.
The basis for the GPL is quite clear in copyright law. Copyright says you cannot copy something unless you have been given premission by the copyright owner. In most cases you have to contact the copyright owner and send them some money. With GPL software the conditions for getting premission to use the software is convently included with the software.
End-User licenses are contracts that people agree to before using the software. They have less strength because no-one ever reads them and there is often no way to back out of the transaction if you don't agree with the conditions of the contract.
Another important difference is the GPL allows you to distrubute the software, under certain conditions, a right you wouldn't normally have. End-User licenses is almost always about removing rights you would normally have.
My point is that the GPL and End-User licenses are very different kinds of licenses and apply to different situations. Disrespecting End-User licenses does no more to reduce the creditabity of the GPL then to does to reduce the creditabity of a car leasing contract.
Activity: Mountain Climbing
Location: Olympus Mons
If you distribute this program or a derivative of this program publicly you must include the source code.
The reason the ICANN hasn't been routed around yet is that it has not yet been enough of a problem in the day-to-day operation and usage of the Internet. Domain name scarcity is minor problem, but won't stop someone from putting up a web site. The disbute resolution has been causing problems for parody sites, but that's a small part of the Internet.
Prehaps if these probably start getting worse, alternatives may form.
I haven't really looked in to it, but I suspect you'll find that most of the domains out there are not own by large corporations, but by individuals and small companies. There aren't that many large corporations, and they each probably have several domains, but that is still small compaired to the number of domains out there.
One difference with the Mircosoft case is when they rigged the demo, they where doing it in court. They where clearly commiting prejury. In the Enron case it may be just fraud. In the missle test it was probably just lying.
I would suspect you to be Matt Yarema of NuNet, Inc..
Evidence:
An embarrassing homepage hosted on small looking ISP NuNet, Inc..
The content seems consistent with a Slashdot users. Going to the profile on the band's page gives the proper background. The profile say he is working part time for Penn College computer services, but he may have changed jobs and the website has not been updated. It is a similar line of work.
I suspect that the sloppy image is supposed to be one of the hints that it a fake site.
If you're tempted to buy a car solely to go to the grocery store you might be interested in this option: AutoShare. It is a Toronto organization which you join that lets you rent thier cars for a few hours at a time from varies locations in Toronto, usually near subway stations. There are other similar organizations in other cities, including one being set up in Chicago.
This way you can use transit for regualar commuting and have access to a car when transit isn't suited for your trip, like to buy groceries.
I recently released a new version of the open source project I work on (TiMidity for OS/2, see web page). Dispite being a minor update that I didn't think many people would be interrested in I got quite a bit of feedback thanking me for my work. Much more then I ever got before.
The reason was that there was a bug that prevented the program from reading the configuration file properly and they where asking about it. I've put up an update I haven't got any feedback since.
These Linux is hard to install arguments are a red herring. It's true that most users could not install Linux without help, it's also true most users could not install Windows without help. The reason this is not a problem for Windows is that it is preinstalled on most computers, so being hard to install is not an issue.
Seeing as they are generally not getting paid to put out these compilers, I think thanks are still in order dispite the imperfections.
... The next think you know they'll be giving the Nobel Peace Prize to the Secretary General of the United Nations.
I wouldn't worry too much about the music. It's usually one of the last things done in a production and probably wasn't ready when they did the ads. They probably just through something together.
The 1973 and 1974 films The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers where shot at the same time. The cast sued because they thought they where only shooting one film.
Most of the people on Slashdot are relatively well educated the sciences. Science is largely about looking at evidence and applying logic and rational thought to see what it means. When that is done to religion it quickly become clear that there is no evidence to support religion and many of the ideas associated with religion.
They do have open minds. They opened thier minds to religion, examined it and rejected it.
As I understand it, TradeMarks expire if they aren't used. That's probably what happened to McLobster.
I remember when the Canadian newspaper, National Post, was about to be launched, thier future competater, The Globe and Mail, trademarked all kinds of names for newspapers not to use them, but to limit the choice of names for the new paper.
Thi s is a Toronto Star article about plans to put filters in Toronto's libraries. I think brings in a perspecive not usually mentioned. Basically the reason they want to add filters is because some teenagers are using the library computers to look at porno. When the librarian ask them not to (a reasonable thing to do, I hope you agree) it has lead to angry confrontations.
I saw something simlar to this last summer at the Playdium in Mississauga, Ontario. It was a fighter where you stand against a blue screen and kick and punch and your charactor would make the same move. Because your game charactor had a fixed set of moves it didn't match your movements precisly, but it worked pretty well.
There are a couple important differences between art and software.
First is creating a consistency vision. When people are cooperating making a large scale software project (like a Operating System) most of them generally what it to do the same thing making it easier to agree on a fundamental design Even if one person wants one feature and another person wants a different feature they can usually both be accommodated without the need to fork. However, if people are cooperating making a large scale art project (like a computer animated TV series) it is subject to a a lot more subjectivity. Some people when the series to go in one direction, some people what it to go in another. Unlike an operating system it much hard to appease both camp without a fork. This would be less of an issue for smaller art projects (like a song) where one person can keep it under control.
Another difference is professionalism. Most people who program open source projects also have a day job programming. Even if it is not open source they still get a lot more skilled then if they where driving a truck as a day job. This means that open source projects are written by skilled professionals, even if they aren't getting paid. I believe there will be always demand for custom business application that will keep programmer employed even if open source takes over. However, if open art takes over I don't see where artists will get their artistic day jobs and gain the level of professionalism needed to make great art. They can't even do what a lot of Linux companies do by making a living off providing support.