I'd like an AV unit that was source agnostic. Internet source or your local NAS. I've also noticed none of them do Internet radio. That's usually a separate expensive box.
"Also, I had the awkward duty of explaining to people that their checks are no good and cannot be accepted without being able to tell them why (when the cashier scans your check, the register automatically does a background check)."
"The military might of planet earth isn't going to get raised in arms because someone stole the plans for the iPhone 4G, or even a semiconductor fab. "
Why not? More wars and petty squabbles have been fought over that most tangible of tangibles, land. Why not over another tangible, jobs? That's ultimately the argument for IP.
Because you cannot authenticate a user to the tracker. It makes ratios and private sites much harder to operate. DHT is more like gnutella in that sense, if you share it everyone can access it without having a good trackratio of seeding.
So in other words the system opens itself up to abuse by the very population it's trying to help. Gee, good thing there's no precedent to how things will turn out when an anonymous group has few consequences.
However I wonder just how the swedish juridicial system are going to prove that the people currently being prosecuted really are the ones behind The Pirate bay since they seem to have moved all systems and IP assets overseas.
Why do you think that'll change anything? If it was that easy then corporations and individuals could always escape the law by moving things overseas.
Sure you can. The decentralized service doesn't have that central server weakness, so the best you can do is blast sacrificial individual users with law suits.
Or implement throttling, and "three strikes, you're out".
After that, it's a case of mass disobedience vs prohibition laws, because people are not going to stop sharing any time soon.
To paraphrase what's written on a mirror,"Caution mass may appear larger than actual size".
"The Catholic Church has to refine and revise it's mission statement every time real science debunks it's faith-based beliefs. "
Debunking what? Last I checked science hasn't found intelligent "aliens" either. At least the church is open to debating the issue. As far as "mission statement" it hasn't changed.
"and show that giving poor countries technology so that their people can learn, grow and prosper will work out better then just throwing food and money at them just too keep their miserable, go nowhere lives going."
Maybe, but before you all decide that technology is the silver bullet to what ails the third world. You might want to view this Global Voices video over at Hulu.
"I'll open-source that too, and will make huge enterprisey pitches for the PHBs, until the closed-source virus that is Skype dies out for all eternity, until the end of all time."
Much like Apple will die out. Here's a clue, Skype did for VOIP what Apple did for computers. Made it easier for the average person to be a participant.
Right now getting Skype running is simple download, install, run, create account, enjoy. SIP is a little less Plug and Play.
That joke sounds pretty funny...til it's your job. Then it's rather hard to laugh about the whole situation. Another thing to keep in mind since we're doing "flips" here. Are the other countries engaging in protectionism in relation to their workers and industry? The US position doesn't seem so absurd when you look at the big picture. A fair and level playing field globalization is not playing on.
I think the real worry for developers regardless of what they develop is the growing pervasiveness that since "one can, one should". As long as there are enough paying to support you, the piracy is a minor annoyance (the honest ones should be mad at piracy). But give it a couple more generations (or as the saying goes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree) and you'll start seeing an impact (mommy and daddy thought it was OK even if it was during their youth)
"So far, piracy of books has not reached the degree of music or movie piracy, in part due to the lack of good equipment on which to read and enjoy pirated books. "
You left out the other half of that equation. Which is easier? Ripping a CD/DVD and distributing it, or "ripping" a physical book and distributing it? Also I'd say that the publishing industry in aggregate has had a lead time to outproduce the capacity of pirates to keep up. How many pirates would it take to copy all the commercial music? Now how many to do the same with print media?
"No sensible person here is contending that. It's just this meme of "intellectual property" which we are contending. Copyright, trademark and patents are basically fine (although not as they are now. Especially: copyright terms are too long, patents shouldn't apply to software, maths or business methods, yadda, yadda)."
Well the point I think that's being made is that if the tool is the same in either case and it's just who wields it that's the difference? Then copyright debates on slashdot should be focusing on the wielder not the tool.
Also I think the point should be made that a form of the GPL could still exist and have power under contract law.
"I am able to imagine a society without copyrights, patents and even trademarks: we wouldn't need the GPL there. "
As long as they're two or more parties with differing goals, there will always need to be contracts.
"Technically, it enforces a different set of freedoms. Whether or not this trade-off is OK with you is the decision you need to take when you choose a license for the code you've written."
I keep it straight this way.
The BSD is about the freedom of ideas embodied in code.
The GPL is about the freedom of code embodied in a license.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes I remember OMNI fondly right along with Future magazine. I even have the OMNI music collection.
I'd like an AV unit that was source agnostic. Internet source or your local NAS. I've also noticed none of them do Internet radio. That's usually a separate expensive box.
"Also, I had the awkward duty of explaining to people that their checks are no good and cannot be accepted without being able to tell them why (when the cashier scans your check, the register automatically does a background check)."
When's this feature coming to credit cards?
"If ecosystems were valuable, you'd pay for them."
Now, or later?
Excuse me for not reading 270+ comments, but how does this affect open source even with it's disclaimer?
"The military might of planet earth isn't going to get raised in arms because someone stole the plans for the iPhone 4G, or even a semiconductor fab. "
Why not? More wars and petty squabbles have been fought over that most tangible of tangibles, land. Why not over another tangible, jobs? That's ultimately the argument for IP.
You forgot to add payload hiding and other counter-measures so no one will know "Ship of fools by Jerry Garcia" is being downloaded by "Anonymous".
Because you cannot authenticate a user to the tracker. It makes ratios and private sites much harder to operate. DHT is more like gnutella in that sense, if you share it everyone can access it without having a good trackratio of seeding.
So in other words the system opens itself up to abuse by the very population it's trying to help. Gee, good thing there's no precedent to how things will turn out when an anonymous group has few consequences.
However I wonder just how the swedish juridicial system are going to prove that the people currently being prosecuted really are the ones behind The Pirate bay since they seem to have moved all systems and IP assets overseas.
Why do you think that'll change anything? If it was that easy then corporations and individuals could always escape the law by moving things overseas.
Sure you can.
The decentralized service doesn't have that central server weakness, so the best you can do is blast sacrificial individual users with law suits.
Or implement throttling, and "three strikes, you're out".
After that, it's a case of mass disobedience vs prohibition laws, because people are not going to stop sharing any time soon.
To paraphrase what's written on a mirror,"Caution mass may appear larger than actual size".
"The Catholic Church has to refine and revise it's mission statement every time real science debunks it's faith-based beliefs. "
Debunking what? Last I checked science hasn't found intelligent "aliens" either. At least the church is open to debating the issue. As far as "mission statement" it hasn't changed.
"Without the adoption of some standard of right and good within the individual heart, there is no hope of restraining people from similar scams."
So which standard shall we use? "Survival of the fittest" or "the golden rule"?
"and show that giving poor countries technology so that their people can learn, grow and prosper will work out better then just throwing food and money at them just too keep their miserable, go nowhere lives going."
Maybe, but before you all decide that technology is the silver bullet to what ails the third world. You might want to view this Global Voices video over at Hulu.
""Rebooting" popular franchises is all the rage these days in Hollywood. "
It seems to have worked for Star Trek: 90210.
"I'll open-source that too, and will make huge enterprisey pitches for the PHBs, until the closed-source virus that is Skype dies out for all eternity, until the end of all time."
Much like Apple will die out. Here's a clue, Skype did for VOIP what Apple did for computers. Made it easier for the average person to be a participant.
Right now getting Skype running is simple download, install, run, create account, enjoy. SIP is a little less Plug and Play.
"Except that people tend to rely on computers, and take risks they would not have otherwise taken."
So in other words, computers are the anti-lock brakes of the electronic's world? See I knew I could get a car analogy in there.
That joke sounds pretty funny...til it's your job. Then it's rather hard to laugh about the whole situation. Another thing to keep in mind since we're doing "flips" here. Are the other countries engaging in protectionism in relation to their workers and industry? The US position doesn't seem so absurd when you look at the big picture. A fair and level playing field globalization is not playing on.
I think the real worry for developers regardless of what they develop is the growing pervasiveness that since "one can, one should". As long as there are enough paying to support you, the piracy is a minor annoyance (the honest ones should be mad at piracy). But give it a couple more generations (or as the saying goes, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree) and you'll start seeing an impact (mommy and daddy thought it was OK even if it was during their youth)
So when will the IRS move my data into the "cloud"?
"So far, piracy of books has not reached the degree of music or movie piracy, in part due to the lack of good equipment on which to read and enjoy pirated books. "
You left out the other half of that equation. Which is easier? Ripping a CD/DVD and distributing it, or "ripping" a physical book and distributing it? Also I'd say that the publishing industry in aggregate has had a lead time to outproduce the capacity of pirates to keep up. How many pirates would it take to copy all the commercial music? Now how many to do the same with print media?
"Granted, it's not hard to put together a parts list far exceeding that cost, but no gamer really needs anything that expensive."
Haven't tried running Crysis on maximum settings have you?
"No sensible person here is contending that. It's just this meme of "intellectual property" which we are contending. Copyright, trademark and patents are basically fine (although not as they are now. Especially: copyright terms are too long, patents shouldn't apply to software, maths or business methods, yadda, yadda)."
Well the point I think that's being made is that if the tool is the same in either case and it's just who wields it that's the difference? Then copyright debates on slashdot should be focusing on the wielder not the tool.
Also I think the point should be made that a form of the GPL could still exist and have power under contract law.
"I am able to imagine a society without copyrights, patents and even trademarks: we wouldn't need the GPL there. "
As long as they're two or more parties with differing goals, there will always need to be contracts.
"...while some others suggest more drastic action (like cutting AT&T fiber)."
*sniff*wipes tear from eye*
Humanity. You make me so proud.
Heh, try being an EE. You'll know how a CPU works inside and out. Will it make you a better programmer? Maybe one that does embedded systems.
"Technically, it enforces a different set of freedoms. Whether or not this trade-off is OK with you is the decision you need to take when you choose a license for the code you've written."
I keep it straight this way.
The BSD is about the freedom of ideas embodied in code.
The GPL is about the freedom of code embodied in a license.
"around the world are looking at alternatives for MS products. "
Yes I believe Solaris will do nicely.