When I first read your post, I saw "embreaded media".
Re:Cut and dried Copyright violation
on
Abusing the GPL?
·
· Score: 1
That is the key, though. You are claiming, correctly, that it would be a copyright violation since both works are the same except for minor changes. The company in the article is claiming the same thing. They are required, under the GPL, to release the source code. And they are, because both "works" are the same except for minor changes -- in the case, the relabeling of function names, variables, etc.
"Prime example of good engineering, you would wish that software could be like that."
A company I once developed software for was running their production systems on old Wang computers. It was kept in an air-conditioned room and employees were told to stay out of it. The box was about the size of a tall washing machine. It even looked like one, with dials in the front. I think they used telnet on their Windows machine to access it. As far as I know, the software has remained intact, with some slight updating to accomodate more products.
I think they (Activition) used NASA photos for the planets in Battlezone (PC edition). I know the Moon had satellite imagery, and I'd bet that Mars did too.
The terrain wasn't modeled after Mars, though, since it had to be molded to fit the mission.
"GhostFire" - former PlanetBattlezone site director
A: Apple is aware of Fink and has started to support us as part of their Open Source relations efforts. So far they are providing us with pre-release seeds of new Mac OS X versions in the hope that Fink packages can be adapted in time for the release. Quote: "
Hopefully it underscores the commitment that many suspect we're not willing to provide. We'll get better at the open source game over time." Thanks Apple!
If the "source code==expressive speech" argument is upheld by higher courts, the DMCA...
While I'm not sure of your definition of a higher court, this finding (US Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit - Junger v. Daley) states:
The issue of whether or not the First Amendment protects encryption source code is a difficult one because source code has both an expressive feature and a functional feature. The United States does not dispute that it is possible to use encryption source code to represent and convey information and ideas about cryptography and that encryption source code can be used by programmers and scholars for such informational purposes. Much like a mathematical or scientific formula, one can describe the function and design of encryption software by a prose explanation; however, for individuals fluent in a computer programming language, source code is the most efficient and precise means by which to communicate ideas about cryptography.
... The fact that a medium of expression has a functional capacity should not preclude constitutional protection.
... Particularly, a musical score cannot be read by the majority of the public but can be used as a means of communication among musicians. Likewise, computer source code, though unintelligible to many, is the preferred method of communication among computer programers.
Because computer source code is an expressive means for the exchange of information and ideas about computer programming, we hold that it is protected by the First Amendment.
More specifically, prior restraint on "pure speech" is looked upon very poorly, except in cases of grave national concern. The court's statement says:
DVDCCA's statutory right to protect its economically valuable trade secret is not
an interest that is "more fundamental" than the First Amendment right to freedom of
speech or even on equal footing with the national security interests and other vital
governmental interests that have previously been found insufficient to justify a prior
restraint. Our respect for the Legislature and its enactment of the UTSA cannot displace
our duty to safeguard the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. Accordingly, we
are compelled to reverse the preliminary injunction.
If read a certain way, it almost sounds like the court is being sarcastic. "No, you silly DVDCCA, your trade secret isn't more important than Mr. Bunner's right to free speech. So don't try to slap a prior restraint on him!"
As the Apple Turns posted a news article and commentary about this a few days back. Here is the article and this is what they said:
Oh, now this sounds like a hoot and a half... Faithful viewer Nina Tovish pointed out an interesting announcement in today's San Jose Mercury News: apparently, SiliconValley.com (the paper's "online partner") is planning to host a little virtual get-together next week-- an "online round table discussion," as they call it. The topic of this little shindig? "The present and future of Apple Computer." Sounds pleasant, right?
But wait just an Apple-bashing minute, here-- check out the roster of participants they've managed to scrape together for the big event: "former Apple Chief Executive Gil Amelio, industry analyst Tim Bajarin, Mercury News reporter Jon Fortt, former Apple product division president Jean-Louis Gassée and former Macintosh product manager Jef Raskin." That doesn't sound like a particularly well-balanced panel to us. If anything, it sounds like the premise for a bad TV sitcom called "Rotten To The Core." "Join us next week for laughs aplenty when Gil pours sugar in the fuel tank of Steve Jobs's jet while Jean-Louis tries to teach Jef how to say 'Mac OS X sucks rocks' in French and hilarity ensues. Don't miss it!"
Yes, we can't wait to hear the new and creative ways in which this panel tears Apple a new orifice. Presumably Gil's going to be rattling off the same old "they'd be doing fine if they'd have stuck to the Master Plan I gave them" routine. Gassée, well, he's not exactly an impartial observer, either; sure, he used to work for Apple, but he left and started up Be, whose operating system Apple almost bought as the basis for what is now known as Mac OS X. Instead, Apple went with Steve's NeXT operating system, and Be is currently floundering badly. We expect thinly-veiled bitterness. Next up: Jon Fortt, who recently wrote an article called "Mac platform good to a point" that basically said Windows XP is going to kick Mac OS X's butt because it's got really great "built-in instant messaging capabilities." Oooooo. And Jef Raskin, widely regarded as the Father of the Macintosh? Well, he went on record last March saying that Mac OS X isn't worth the upgrade, because it's just "another face-lift" with "an awful lot of minuses." We'll see if the imminent 10.1 version has changed his mind at all.
So we've got four panelists with an axe to grind about Apple, or at least about Mac OS X (and this is about the "future of Apple," remember). As for Tim Bajarin, well, we've certainly got nothing against him-- he was the one who recently wrote that once the PC price war is over, the two main contenders left in the consumer market are likely to be Sony and Apple. But when you stick five people in a room and the most Apple-positive one turns out to be the "industry analyst," clearly you're looking at the "online round table discussion" equivalent of a mob hit. If you'd care to tune in for the carnage, reportedly "the discussion will begin Monday at 9 a.m. and end at noon Aug. 16." Whoa, seventy-five consecutive hours of probably Apple-bashing with only a lone industry analyst to defend (maybe) Apple's honor? What could possibly be more entertaining?
I read in the early reports (not sure if it has been invalidated or corrected now), that the random number generator did not reseed itself on each infection. Thus, the IPs generated where the same.
A variant of the original worm supposedly corrected this error.
One thing that you'll see in the video that isn't mentioned that often in the text reports is Steve Jobs' little fiasco with the digital camera while at the computer.
Steve: Just got to turn your camera on. [pause]
Steve: Alright. [stares at the camera]
[Someone in the front row says something.]
Yeah, I need some help out here, it's technical. My camera's not turning on.
[Same guy.]
Steve: What's that? I did slide it in like that. It's not turning on. Here. [throws the camera offstage at the guy]
[Crowd goes ooh - some applause, some laughter, bit of nervous tension.]
Steve: We'll let an expert see if he can turn it on. Hopefully he can. Shall I show you, uh... Got it on?
[Guy says something about batteries.]
Steve: Batteries have to go back in from me throwing it. Sorry.
That's for the Java portions of Microsoft's EULAs. Specifically, it reads:
"The Software product may contain support for programs written in Java. Java technology is not fault tolerant and is not designed, manufactured, or intended for use or resale as online control equipment in hazardous environments requiring fail-safe performance, such as in the operation of nuclear facilities, aircraft navigation or communications systems, air traffic control, direct life support machines, or weapons systems, in which the failure of Java technology could lead directly to death, personal injury, or severe physical or environmental damage."
Several generations from now, will our children look back and wonder how we could have recklessly polluted space like that?
Sure, our atmosphere may protect us from it. But what unforseen consequences could this bring? You never know until it is too late.
Ironically enough, the W3C uses a table to layout the W3C A to Z bar to the left, the news content in the middle, and the other links of the right side. And I quote..
<table summary="Layout table: The first cell contains a navigation bar of W3C technologies, the second contains news, and the third another navigation bar of W3C pages." border="0" width="99%" cellspacing="0"
cellpadding="10">
Yes, it isn't as hideous as some of the nested tables I've seen, but funny still that the W3C uses tables for layout.
Black and White is a freeform god game. There is no interface to speak of, you do everything through the "Hand of God". (By the way, these are all my terms and interpretations. Things may have changed since I've looked at B&W.)
Lionhead coded hand gesture recognition technology. You do things by making gestures with your hand/cursor. For example, let's say you wanted to light a village on fire. You would cast the fire spell by doing a certain set of motions. The fireball would come blazing out, severity varying depending on how accurate you did the spell. (For example, if the casting shape was a circle and you made a really bad rounded rectangle, you could expect a very weak spell).
As a god, you are neutral. You can deal with a situation any way you wish. So, you can impose your own will upon the people in the game. In a bad mood? Toss the child into the ocean to teach the mother a lesson for not paying closer attention. Feeling generous? Cast a growing spell on the village's crops. The availability of the spells depends on whether you lean toward the good/bad side. Almost like Star Wars.
The objective of the game is to gather as many followers as possible. Your followers will erect places of worship toward you, and you gain more power from it. There are other gods, too, though. You have to try and convert as many people to your following, though.
Another aspect is the avatar that you control. These are in the form of an ape, tiger, or some other creature. He/she/it represents your will. You will raise this creature and he will learn from you. For example, if you cast a fire spell a few times, it will eventually learn it and can cast the spell on its own. The attitude and look of your avatar changes depending on your goodness/evilness. If you're an angry god, your avatar will take on an evil disposition. If you are a peaceful god, your avatar will be angelic. Likewise for the environment. Dark clouds if you're bad. Sunlight if you're good.
There is another aspect of the game that deals with multiplayer. I think it is called "The Gathering" and you can bring your avatar/creature online and converse with other player's creatures. They can do battle with each other or just talk. The singleplayer/multiplayer creatures may be interchangeable (e.g. a spell you learn online can then be used offline).
Take a more thorough look through the fan sites, I think you'll find that many claim the gameplay is good. However, you never really know until the game is released. The concepts appear sound, though, and I think that Lionhead has a winner here.
On the topic of graphics, have you seen the level of detail movie? The camera starts focused on a worm in an apple. The apple is sitting on a barrel, which is next to a house. The house in in a village.. so forth, until you're looking at the whole island. Quite impressive.
I've been following this game for a while now. It seems real interesting, as the player apparently has the choice to do anything he wants to approach the problem, which is a sharp departure from the open door, push button games that are standard fare today. Even Half-Life was structured with a certain path through the level.
However, B&W allows you to solve a certain problem by using good powers (such as whisking a lost villager back home) or bad powers (just heaving a large tree at the villager would put an end to the problem as well).
Slashdot Mirror
Even odder...
When I first read your post, I saw "embreaded media".
That is the key, though. You are claiming, correctly, that it would be a copyright violation since both works are the same except for minor changes. The company in the article is claiming the same thing. They are required, under the GPL, to release the source code. And they are, because both "works" are the same except for minor changes -- in the case, the relabeling of function names, variables, etc.
I refer you to Ronja.
A company I once developed software for was running their production systems on old Wang computers. It was kept in an air-conditioned room and employees were told to stay out of it. The box was about the size of a tall washing machine. It even looked like one, with dials in the front. I think they used telnet on their Windows machine to access it. As far as I know, the software has remained intact, with some slight updating to accomodate more products.
I think they (Activition) used NASA photos for the planets in Battlezone (PC edition). I know the Moon had satellite imagery, and I'd bet that Mars did too.
The terrain wasn't modeled after Mars, though, since it had to be molded to fit the mission.
"GhostFire" - former PlanetBattlezone site director
Bercaw?
You should take a look at Apple's FAQ. It's all in there.
Oh, now this sounds like a hoot and a half... Faithful viewer Nina Tovish pointed out an interesting announcement in today's San Jose Mercury News: apparently, SiliconValley.com (the paper's "online partner") is planning to host a little virtual get-together next week-- an "online round table discussion," as they call it. The topic of this little shindig? "The present and future of Apple Computer." Sounds pleasant, right?
But wait just an Apple-bashing minute, here-- check out the roster of participants they've managed to scrape together for the big event: "former Apple Chief Executive Gil Amelio, industry analyst Tim Bajarin, Mercury News reporter Jon Fortt, former Apple product division president Jean-Louis Gassée and former Macintosh product manager Jef Raskin." That doesn't sound like a particularly well-balanced panel to us. If anything, it sounds like the premise for a bad TV sitcom called "Rotten To The Core." "Join us next week for laughs aplenty when Gil pours sugar in the fuel tank of Steve Jobs's jet while Jean-Louis tries to teach Jef how to say 'Mac OS X sucks rocks' in French and hilarity ensues. Don't miss it!"
Yes, we can't wait to hear the new and creative ways in which this panel tears Apple a new orifice. Presumably Gil's going to be rattling off the same old "they'd be doing fine if they'd have stuck to the Master Plan I gave them" routine. Gassée, well, he's not exactly an impartial observer, either; sure, he used to work for Apple, but he left and started up Be, whose operating system Apple almost bought as the basis for what is now known as Mac OS X. Instead, Apple went with Steve's NeXT operating system, and Be is currently floundering badly. We expect thinly-veiled bitterness. Next up: Jon Fortt, who recently wrote an article called "Mac platform good to a point" that basically said Windows XP is going to kick Mac OS X's butt because it's got really great "built-in instant messaging capabilities." Oooooo. And Jef Raskin, widely regarded as the Father of the Macintosh? Well, he went on record last March saying that Mac OS X isn't worth the upgrade, because it's just "another face-lift" with "an awful lot of minuses." We'll see if the imminent 10.1 version has changed his mind at all.
So we've got four panelists with an axe to grind about Apple, or at least about Mac OS X (and this is about the "future of Apple," remember). As for Tim Bajarin, well, we've certainly got nothing against him-- he was the one who recently wrote that once the PC price war is over, the two main contenders left in the consumer market are likely to be Sony and Apple. But when you stick five people in a room and the most Apple-positive one turns out to be the "industry analyst," clearly you're looking at the "online round table discussion" equivalent of a mob hit. If you'd care to tune in for the carnage, reportedly "the discussion will begin Monday at 9 a.m. and end at noon Aug. 16." Whoa, seventy-five consecutive hours of probably Apple-bashing with only a lone industry analyst to defend (maybe) Apple's honor? What could possibly be more entertaining?
I read in the early reports (not sure if it has been invalidated or corrected now), that the random number generator did not reseed itself on each infection. Thus, the IPs generated where the same.
A variant of the original worm supposedly corrected this error.
One thing that you'll see in the video that isn't mentioned that often in the text reports is Steve Jobs' little fiasco with the digital camera while at the computer.
Steve: Just got to turn your camera on. [pause]
Steve: Alright. [stares at the camera]
[Someone in the front row says something.]
Yeah, I need some help out here, it's technical. My camera's not turning on.
[Same guy.]
Steve: What's that? I did slide it in like that. It's not turning on. Here. [throws the camera offstage at the guy]
[Crowd goes ooh - some applause, some laughter, bit of nervous tension.]
Steve: We'll let an expert see if he can turn it on. Hopefully he can. Shall I show you, uh... Got it on?
[Guy says something about batteries.]
Steve: Batteries have to go back in from me throwing it. Sorry.
Yes, but you need QuickTime -- MacWorld NY 2001 Keynote.
That's for the Java portions of Microsoft's EULAs. Specifically, it reads:
"The Software product may contain support for programs written in Java. Java technology is not fault tolerant and is not designed, manufactured, or intended for use or resale as online control equipment in hazardous environments requiring fail-safe performance, such as in the operation of nuclear facilities, aircraft navigation or communications systems, air traffic control, direct life support machines, or weapons systems, in which the failure of Java technology could lead directly to death, personal injury, or severe physical or environmental damage."
IBM Solves Major Problem In LCD Monitor Production - Slashdot Article
IBM Article
Several generations from now, will our children look back and wonder how we could have recklessly polluted space like that? Sure, our atmosphere may protect us from it. But what unforseen consequences could this bring? You never know until it is too late.
Ironically enough, the W3C uses a table to layout the W3C A to Z bar to the left, the news content in the middle, and the other links of the right side. And I quote..
<table summary="Layout table: The first cell contains a navigation bar of W3C technologies, the second contains news, and the third another navigation bar of W3C pages." border="0" width="99%" cellspacing="0"
cellpadding="10">
Yes, it isn't as hideous as some of the nested tables I've seen, but funny still that the W3C uses tables for layout.
Until a link gets put up, here's Special Study Group 2.161 Report Report - Probing the Atmosphere by GPS that seems to talk about the Blackjack system.
Is there a link to the article or is this it?
CSS is used more than those other technologies. XML seems to making headway recently as well.
Or maybe I just surround myself with that news and see the world in a slightly bias light.
Black and White is a freeform god game. There is no interface to speak of, you do everything through the "Hand of God". (By the way, these are all my terms and interpretations. Things may have changed since I've looked at B&W.)
Lionhead coded hand gesture recognition technology. You do things by making gestures with your hand/cursor. For example, let's say you wanted to light a village on fire. You would cast the fire spell by doing a certain set of motions. The fireball would come blazing out, severity varying depending on how accurate you did the spell. (For example, if the casting shape was a circle and you made a really bad rounded rectangle, you could expect a very weak spell).
As a god, you are neutral. You can deal with a situation any way you wish. So, you can impose your own will upon the people in the game. In a bad mood? Toss the child into the ocean to teach the mother a lesson for not paying closer attention. Feeling generous? Cast a growing spell on the village's crops. The availability of the spells depends on whether you lean toward the good/bad side. Almost like Star Wars.
The objective of the game is to gather as many followers as possible. Your followers will erect places of worship toward you, and you gain more power from it. There are other gods, too, though. You have to try and convert as many people to your following, though.
Another aspect is the avatar that you control. These are in the form of an ape, tiger, or some other creature. He/she/it represents your will. You will raise this creature and he will learn from you. For example, if you cast a fire spell a few times, it will eventually learn it and can cast the spell on its own. The attitude and look of your avatar changes depending on your goodness/evilness. If you're an angry god, your avatar will take on an evil disposition. If you are a peaceful god, your avatar will be angelic. Likewise for the environment. Dark clouds if you're bad. Sunlight if you're good.
There is another aspect of the game that deals with multiplayer. I think it is called "The Gathering" and you can bring your avatar/creature online and converse with other player's creatures. They can do battle with each other or just talk. The singleplayer/multiplayer creatures may be interchangeable (e.g. a spell you learn online can then be used offline).
Take a more thorough look through the fan sites, I think you'll find that many claim the gameplay is good. However, you never really know until the game is released. The concepts appear sound, though, and I think that Lionhead has a winner here.
On the topic of graphics, have you seen the level of detail movie? The camera starts focused on a worm in an apple. The apple is sitting on a barrel, which is next to a house. The house in in a village.. so forth, until you're looking at the whole island. Quite impressive.
Dang, now it looks like I'm going to be marked down for Redundant. :(
A direct link to the LionGames.com gallery page: Liongames.com - Media: Screenshots.
Likewise, the Lionhead Studios website.
I've been following this game for a while now. It seems real interesting, as the player apparently has the choice to do anything he wants to approach the problem, which is a sharp departure from the open door, push button games that are standard fare today. Even Half-Life was structured with a certain path through the level.
However, B&W allows you to solve a certain problem by using good powers (such as whisking a lost villager back home) or bad powers (just heaving a large tree at the villager would put an end to the problem as well).