1. Software queries the drive for its ID when installing. It stores an encrypted version of that ID in the registry or a config file, or embedded in the executable it writes to the disk. If the software is moved, it detects a different ID from the drive than it expects and fails. If the drive is not ID capable the software fails. If the software is hacked to ignore the check it could work. Hard to do if the software self-encrypts/decrypts itself with the ID. Theoretically anyone could ask the drive for its ID. Unless the drive manufacturers require a special key to be sent to the drive to get its ID. And then they have to dish out keys to software companies. What do they do when a new company wants a key, which no current drives have?
2. Software downloads from a pay site would have you first get special software from the site to do the download. The ID is sent and the software is modified on the fly to only work on a drive with that ID.
ID spoofing is quite possible in both scenarios. Of course, any ID spoofing software could be illegal under the DMCA.
There are prohibitions against terms that violate public policy. There are exceptions that allow backups in the copyright law. That may not get you out of being in trouble due to contract law. However, mere contract breach may not get huge damages against you, since there are only actual damages and profits of the violator and loss of rights under the contract. There are no long prison terms or statuatory damages (e.g. $100K damages even if no profits to the violator or harm to the copyright owner occurred) provisions.
And remember, the technology not only makes it technically hard (someone can break the system...) but automatically illegal to copy the data, thanks to the magic of the DMCA.
Every copy protection system automatically makes even fair use operations which the system tried to make hard automatically illegal. "Hacking" will get around the technical protection, but not the legal protection. It will not save you from a civil judgement against you. Fair use is no defense, the DeCSS trial set the precedent that the copy protection system has the same force as law.
I wonder if thayt could be viewed as an unconstitutional delegation of power from Congress to the copy protection system implementers. Only the former should be able to make law, but de facto power is being given to the latter to do so - even if such "pseudo-law" only affects media protected by the specific system being used.
They can have my old vcr, my old camcorder and any of my other stuff WHEN THEY PRY IT out of my cold, dead hands~! -aicra
It may come to that. Don't give them any ideas.
Death penalty for economic "terrorism" or "treason" by producing, using and/or distributing a "destructive device" (i.e. a circumvention device which allows corporate profits to be hurt - thus an attack on the economy and the country as a whole). Just give them a few years...
Your web server will have to be secure. I hate to break it to you, but even as of now, if your web server isn't secure - you are at risk. They can get through your firewall via port 80, compromise your web server and use that as a jumping off point for attacks.
Smart companies put their external web server in a "DMZ" (neither fully inside or fully outside) where it is protected from the Internet (except port 80 of course) and has limited or no access to the internal network.
Great, give him an incentive to hack the power company's computers to black out the prison so he can't fry. Watch him take out half the country and all of us lose our Linux uptime contests due to the resulting power outages.;)
The more people are raised to not be able to deal with negative situations by being isolated from them, the more oppression will be imposed. It is a vicious cycle. Oppression leads to sheltering people from "bad" things, which when they are finally exposed to them they are unable to deal with and are greatly upset by. These people then scream for more efforts to "protect" people from those "bad" things, and we get more laws and more oppression.
Why do they single out and ban Region 1 DVDs?! Instead of banning any NON-Zone 2 DVDs. Sounds like a slam against the US to me. France doesn't really like the US you know... (I am not getting into any Us vs Them debate, just stating a fact of international relations)
Ok. I concede that there is a philosophical school of thought based on the (IMO, naive) notion that if I scratch backs, mine will be scratched too.
Which does not necessarily apply. Yes, releasing something as GPL doesn't guarantee people will give you free development, good will, etc. But there are no guarantees in business in general. There are no guarantees people will buy a proprietary software package, etc.
Second, the GPL gives certain rights in exchange for you granting some rights back.
It would be naive if the GPL only pleaded with its reader. However, it makes a legal demand, you can NOT do certain things without permission, which is only granted if you do certain other things.
It's more like if you don't do something for me, I won't do something for you (i.e. give you a license). And it has the force of copyright law to back it up. Copyright law allows almost any restrictions to be made by the copyright holder. The only things not allowed would be things such as illegal discrimination against a protected class, restrictions designed to further criminal activity (e.g. encryption licensed for all but police), and anything similarly illegal or against public policy. Any lawyers care to comment?
The purpose of it is to do good, not anything dealing with economics or money. And it doesn't have to be. The incentives do include economic ones. This is what is important. These incentives include free development and free code review, good publicity, more sales of hardware used with the software, etc. All those I listed can potentially make someone money. That is the crucial point. That is what may save the GPL in some cases.
RMS can be a communist for all it matters. That doesn't mean there are no reasons for capitalist companies, etc to be interested in the GPL. Sometimes self-interest does coincide with public interest. Alas not always, but sometimes.
The GPL says do something good for the community, and the community will do something good for you. SOunds pretty close to an economic transaction...
If that is the case, and it can be seen that they knew or had reason to know they could examine the code for infringement (that should be easy to prove - anyone with due care can find the website and download it) and made a public accusation/threat of a patent suit and made claims of infringement, couldn't they get in trouble? Threatening a suit in bad faith, potential interference with business relationships (e.g. scaring off potential customers and investors), libel, etc.
Any lawyers (real lawyers and "armchair" lawyers;) care to speculate if Thomson, et al could end up being liable for damages to Xiphophorous at some point?
Floppy disk controller not responding is probably not a real big problem on a web server, for example. You both make good points, it should be a user switchable option.
One could also argue that Linux should be installed by those that have that knowledge. This is not intended as a flame. Windows is user-friendly you say? But remember, the consumer almost NEVER imstalls it themselves. They get it pre-installed. As for "user performed" upgrades, I had a neighbor upgrade from 95 to 98. They didn't do it themselves, they called me.;)
Installing an OS should be easier, but Windows isn't necessarily easy. Especially when trying to install on a system with a badly hosed Windows system that the CD wants to try to salvage. (which makes things worse)
Maybe the Linux community needs more people willing to help their friends with Linux problems, just as knowledgable Windows users help those in need.
I SURE hope these private generating systems which feed back power onto the grid recognize a grid failure and do NOT try to power the whole neighborhood themselves. Do they require some sort of circuitry to disconnect any power feed onto a dead grid?
Some of them are actually stupid enough to say "Click to Agree" and "clicking this button binds you to the contract", but still allow keyboard input (tab and return) to make you "press" the button and install. I am not a lawayer, but I know that the law can be VERY specific, and if only "clicking" on the buton binds you, and you use the keyboard, you MIGHT be able to say you didn't agree to it, even though the installer did. Or you can hack the code to make "I Disagree" work. Or even put a hacked DLL in the path that makes the first dialog box call return the code the the "I Agree" button. You are only bound by copyright law since you haven't agreed to the contract (you aren't at that point yet), and you never do agree.
Copyright law is what you are bound by then.
P.S. This is not legal advice - see a real lawyer for that.
That's true, but they can't target individuals in CA vs. NY and give them advertisements local
to them.
They may be able to customize the stream depending on the listener location. The technology to do that isn't that extreme. Look up the IP address, look up the provider, switch to the appropriate ad stream at the right time. If not now, soon.
Why do they need this extra measure of "control" over them? So they can change them and pretend that any mistakes were never there? So they can make them
dissapear later
BugTraq should md5 the bulletin and provide that next to the link to Microsoft. If Microsoft changes anything, people will be able to tell. If it goes away, people will see the dangling link. Microsoft will look bad either way...
Big pipes aren't enough. Reliable and redundant pipes and routers are critical. They can't have to interrupt service to repair or upgrade equipment. A telephone exchange can keep running as a whole for years, with parts being replaced as needed and minimal disruption occurring. The Internet infrastructure needs to achive THAT level of high availability.
Hope you are right about it getting better.
Also, I still think there is a place for circuit switched technology in phone networks...
Anyone have a cite for any legal decisions which made it illegal for that company (or any other) to provide telephone service?
Or did the gov't just say they would not prosecute AT&T for anti-trust - in which case it would not be profitable for anyone else to try to compete (which is a different problem than to make any attempt to do so a crime).
and I honestly think that most calls will be routed through cyberspace in the future.
I sure hope not. My phones are quite reliable. Outages do occur, but not often. Outages on the Internet are extremely common. Connection timed out, host unreachable, etc. I get those every week. I have phone outages less than 4 times a year.
If I need medical, fire, or police assistance, I'm much safer with the good old reliable circuit switced public telephone network. Even for less critical stuff, it is nice to know once connected you can talk without disruption unless the circuit fails. No dropped packets. My girlfriend has Sprint PCS (mobile) and you can HEAR the packet loss at times! I don't want that problem on my land lines!
No, the 1 and 0 would not be allowed at the beginning of an area code, only at the beginning of a prefix (it is still a bad idea, IMO).
Now with mandatory 10 digit dialing, and area codes >= 200, here are the possibilities:
Local call: NXX-XXX-XXXX
Long distance: 1-NXX-XXX-XXXX
X is any digit, N is any digit >= 2.
I use that notation later on in this post; it is
standard telecom notation.
The switch can tell the two apart. One means long distance, 2 or greater is local. It could not if
the area code was optional, e.g. is it 180-0555 or 1-800-555 that is being dialed. If 180-0555 is a real phone number, it would conflict with 1-800-555-xxxx. I know the switch could use a time out, but having the wrong number get dialed due to a delay in dialing is generally a bad thing.
The article doesn't say area codes would be switched from NXX to XXX. Just prefixes.
I recently wrote code which validates that a phone number is at least somewhat legit. It does not check lists of prefixes or numbers, but checks that it is NXX and not N11 and not 555. That would have to be rewritten.
Remember, not too long ago, prefixes were NNX and area codes were N0X and N1X. And we only had 800 for toll free. Now we have 800, 888, 877, 866 (recently opened - in actual use) and 855 (theoretically open - if not in use will be soon), talk of 844 in a couple of years and maybe even 833 and 822 eventually, NXX prefixes, NXX area codes and we are still running out of numbers! The article says we may need 11 or 12 digit dialing even with XXX prefixes.
Why are we in such a crisis? I know people have more phone numbers for computers, pagers, faxes, cell phones, etc, but is it really THAT extreme?
I agree. Parents need to be there for the kids. Allowing games to fill a void and become a part of "culture" is frightening and sad. Parents need to teach kids what they NEED to know. True culture is more than mere entertainment, it is values, shared experiences, artistic expression, etc. I am not saying gaming is utterly useless, just saying keep it in perspective.
People need to get out in the real world, and do good _in the real world_. Fight for freedom of speech. Fight racism. Make a difference in the life of a child. Give hope to someone who has given up. Stop people from picking on those that are "different" (geeks, minorities, women, heavy people, skinny people, etc, etc).
Build real culture: invent something of value, produce a beautiful work of art, etc.
Go home and play Quake to relax, or watch TV, or whatever.
Just never let that become the focus of your life, or make it into something more than it is.
Jon Katz has gone off the deep end here.
I may get modded down for exercising my freedom of speech, but if so, it was worth it. Some things just need to be said.
Slashdot Mirror
Ah, a machine in a dorm room. That'll handle the load from the Slashdot effect really well! ;)
Here is how it could work:
1. Software queries the drive for its ID when installing. It stores an encrypted version of that ID in the registry or a config file, or embedded in the executable it writes to the disk. If the software is moved, it detects a different ID from the drive than it expects and fails. If the drive is not ID capable the software fails. If the software is hacked to ignore the check it could work. Hard to do if the software self-encrypts/decrypts itself with the ID. Theoretically anyone could ask the drive for its ID. Unless the drive manufacturers require a special key to be sent to the drive to get its ID. And then they have to dish out keys to software companies. What do they do when a new company wants a key, which no current drives have?
2. Software downloads from a pay site would have you first get special software from the site to do the download. The ID is sent and the software is modified on the fly to only work on a drive with that ID.
ID spoofing is quite possible in both scenarios. Of course, any ID spoofing software could be illegal under the DMCA.
I am not a lawyer, can someone confirm the above?
Every copy protection system automatically makes even fair use operations which the system tried to make hard automatically illegal. "Hacking" will get around the technical protection, but not the legal protection. It will not save you from a civil judgement against you. Fair use is no defense, the DeCSS trial set the precedent that the copy protection system has the same force as law.
I wonder if thayt could be viewed as an unconstitutional delegation of power from Congress to the copy protection system implementers. Only the former should be able to make law, but de facto power is being given to the latter to do so - even if such "pseudo-law" only affects media protected by the specific system being used.
It may come to that. Don't give them any ideas.
Death penalty for economic "terrorism" or "treason" by producing, using and/or distributing a "destructive device" (i.e. a circumvention device which allows corporate profits to be hurt - thus an attack on the economy and the country as a whole). Just give them a few years...
1/2 ;)
Smart companies put their external web server in a "DMZ" (neither fully inside or fully outside) where it is protected from the Internet (except port 80 of course) and has limited or no access to the internal network.
Great, give him an incentive to hack the power company's computers to black out the prison so he can't fry. Watch him take out half the country and all of us lose our Linux uptime contests due to the resulting power outages. ;)
The more people are raised to not be able to deal with negative situations by being isolated from them, the more oppression will be imposed. It is a vicious cycle. Oppression leads to sheltering people from "bad" things, which when they are finally exposed to them they are unable to deal with and are greatly upset by. These people then scream for more efforts to "protect" people from those "bad" things, and we get more laws and more oppression.
Why do they single out and ban Region 1 DVDs?! Instead of banning any NON-Zone 2 DVDs. Sounds like a slam against the US to me. France doesn't really like the US you know... (I am not getting into any Us vs Them debate, just stating a fact of international relations)
Which does not necessarily apply. Yes, releasing something as GPL doesn't guarantee people will give you free development, good will, etc. But there are no guarantees in business in general. There are no guarantees people will buy a proprietary software package, etc.
Second, the GPL gives certain rights in exchange for you granting some rights back.
It would be naive if the GPL only pleaded with its reader. However, it makes a legal demand, you can NOT do certain things without permission, which is only granted if you do certain other things.
It's more like if you don't do something for me, I won't do something for you (i.e. give you a license). And it has the force of copyright law to back it up. Copyright law allows almost any restrictions to be made by the copyright holder. The only things not allowed would be things such as illegal discrimination against a protected class, restrictions designed to further criminal activity (e.g. encryption licensed for all but police), and anything similarly illegal or against public policy. Any lawyers care to comment?
RMS can be a communist for all it matters. That doesn't mean there are no reasons for capitalist companies, etc to be interested in the GPL. Sometimes self-interest does coincide with public interest. Alas not always, but sometimes.
The GPL says do something good for the community, and the community will do something good for you. SOunds pretty close to an economic transaction...
Any lawyers (real lawyers and "armchair" lawyers ;) care to speculate if Thomson, et al could end up being liable for damages to Xiphophorous at some point?
Intel has QA people? ;)
Floppy disk controller not responding is probably not a real big problem on a web server, for example. You both make good points, it should be a user switchable option.
Installing an OS should be easier, but Windows isn't necessarily easy. Especially when trying to install on a system with a badly hosed Windows system that the CD wants to try to salvage. (which makes things worse)
Maybe the Linux community needs more people willing to help their friends with Linux problems, just as knowledgable Windows users help those in need.
I SURE hope these private generating systems which feed back power onto the grid recognize a grid failure and do NOT try to power the whole neighborhood themselves. Do they require some sort of circuitry to disconnect any power feed onto a dead grid?
Copyright law is what you are bound by then.
P.S. This is not legal advice - see a real lawyer for that.
They may be able to customize the stream depending on the listener location. The technology to do that isn't that extreme. Look up the IP address, look up the provider, switch to the appropriate ad stream at the right time. If not now, soon.
Oh way, the DMCA is prior art. ;)
BugTraq should md5 the bulletin and provide that next to the link to Microsoft. If Microsoft changes anything, people will be able to tell. If it goes away, people will see the dangling link. Microsoft will look bad either way...
Hope you are right about it getting better.
Also, I still think there is a place for circuit switched technology in phone networks...
Or did the gov't just say they would not prosecute AT&T for anti-trust - in which case it would not be profitable for anyone else to try to compete (which is a different problem than to make any attempt to do so a crime).
I sure hope not. My phones are quite reliable. Outages do occur, but not often. Outages on the Internet are extremely common. Connection timed out, host unreachable, etc. I get those every week. I have phone outages less than 4 times a year.
If I need medical, fire, or police assistance, I'm much safer with the good old reliable circuit switced public telephone network. Even for less critical stuff, it is nice to know once connected you can talk without disruption unless the circuit fails. No dropped packets. My girlfriend has Sprint PCS (mobile) and you can HEAR the packet loss at times! I don't want that problem on my land lines!
No, the 1 and 0 would not be allowed at the beginning of an area code, only at the beginning of a prefix (it is still a bad idea, IMO).
Now with mandatory 10 digit dialing, and area codes >= 200, here are the possibilities:
Local call: NXX-XXX-XXXX
Long distance: 1-NXX-XXX-XXXX
X is any digit, N is any digit >= 2.
I use that notation later on in this post; it is
standard telecom notation.
The switch can tell the two apart. One means long distance, 2 or greater is local. It could not if
the area code was optional, e.g. is it 180-0555 or 1-800-555 that is being dialed. If 180-0555 is a real phone number, it would conflict with 1-800-555-xxxx. I know the switch could use a time out, but having the wrong number get dialed due to a delay in dialing is generally a bad thing.
The article doesn't say area codes would be switched from NXX to XXX. Just prefixes.
I recently wrote code which validates that a phone number is at least somewhat legit. It does not check lists of prefixes or numbers, but checks that it is NXX and not N11 and not 555. That would have to be rewritten.
Remember, not too long ago, prefixes were NNX and area codes were N0X and N1X. And we only had 800 for toll free. Now we have 800, 888, 877, 866 (recently opened - in actual use) and 855 (theoretically open - if not in use will be soon), talk of 844 in a couple of years and maybe even 833 and 822 eventually, NXX prefixes, NXX area codes and we are still running out of numbers! The article says we may need 11 or 12 digit dialing even with XXX prefixes.
Why are we in such a crisis? I know people have more phone numbers for computers, pagers, faxes, cell phones, etc, but is it really THAT extreme?
People need to get out in the real world, and do good _in the real world_. Fight for freedom of speech. Fight racism. Make a difference in the life of a child. Give hope to someone who has given up. Stop people from picking on those that are "different" (geeks, minorities, women, heavy people, skinny people, etc, etc).
Build real culture: invent something of value, produce a beautiful work of art, etc.
Go home and play Quake to relax, or watch TV, or whatever.
Just never let that become the focus of your life, or make it into something more than it is.
Jon Katz has gone off the deep end here.
I may get modded down for exercising my freedom of speech, but if so, it was worth it. Some things just need to be said.