, I am slightly worried with the results of the trial.
I use Demon for some of my backbone operations and I fully supported them in the case - I actually thought that they would go through with it and win, and I was disappointed that they didn't.
All Demon did was allow USENET news to work in the way it was designed - a message posted gets circulated around the world. Given the volume of traffic in USENET is is unreasonable that they are meant to be aware of every single posting, but the case hinged on the fact that Godfrey informed Demon on possible libel.
At no point (as far as I know) did he attempt to prove to Demon that the article would libel him, but instead sued (I believe he has 'acquired' a reputation for this, but I'm unable to confirm this). And Demon buckled.
Many webmasters (like myself) will now be worried that their site may be closed down because of something they may or may not say in the future and many of us are now considering moving our sites out of the UK (especially if they run a 'public bulletin board' or forum, or maybe even an adult website [see http://www.beebware.com/dir/Adult/.
All in all, its very worrying for UK webmasters, UK Internet users and the UK internet in general.
Since I submitted this article, I may as well fill everybody in
I think it 'nerd news' because not only was Jennicam one of the first (not the first - I agree that it was probably the Cambridge coffe pot), but her site is one of the busiest (and this is the first time I've known it to be down and, no, it was down before the story was posted).
She also helped raise the media profile of the web and internet - I've lost track of the number of news articles about her and her site
Okay, her site isn't free (I'd hate to think how much she is paying per month in bandwidth charges), and she doesn't 'get her kit off' much - but that isn't the point of the site. It is to show an insight into her life and everything.
When you 'purchase' commerical software, you don't actually buy it. You buy a licence to USE the software and the software company is usual kind enough to provide you with a copy of the software with the licence.
If you don't want to use the licence (by following its terms and conditions etc) then you shouldn't use the software as the licence is the product you brought.
Slightly confusing, I know, but that's how it is.
In real life, however, who knows what you get up to in private.You aren't meant to transfer CDs to audio casettes, but many many many people do... That's why you often see the disclaimer 'copying of copyright materials is illegal' because the manufactours know it goes on, but they are just saying that the product isn't mean't to be used like that
I wonder what the legal position would be if DeCSS et al is relesed as 'it is just a disc fuller to help fill up your harddisc for testing purposes' and people then used it for 'other purposes' the authors would be liable for the misuse would they? I wouldn't have thought so...
Just my thoughts about the whole issue, remember that I'm not a lawyer:)
If they are selling it for 'Linux' and we try an run it on something like ARM Linux - we could have a very good case.
It'll be questionable who will actually buy it - very small market base (1 variant of Linux) and many people who do have Linux will know where to get DeCSS etc.
Re: was /. votes on best hack ever
on
Hoax-a-go-go!
·
· Score: 1
Strangly enough, I have never received Good Times or the Bill Gates hoaxes - are these for real or just urban legends?:)
Nor have I received Mellissa - which is a shame cause I wanted to examine the source code (it couldn't infect my system anyway).
Has anyone else noticed that in the last few weeks the mainstream media seem to be taking a 'higher than normal' interest in these sort of things (.net in the UK's done recent features).
Somes I wonder who actually wrote the original hoaxes - you never see anyone claim the credit do you? I recent email I received placed the blame on aliens trying to overload our technology - I believe every word of it:) Richy C. --
Yahho! has its own auction site ( http://auctions.yahoo.com IIRC) and obviously people have been auctioning off illegal warez. While I'm in all favour of suing Yahoo! (being a editor of ODP), and I support the companies in preventing software piracy, we have got to ask ourselves what will happen to other auction sites like eBay etc. Richy C. --
Excuse me, but if it is 'closed-source' only the developers can fix any security holes or bugs. And it might be only one developer that works on it. Even if it is a team it won't be 24/7. Open-Source on the other hand, can be fixed by anybody quickly. Therefore if *I* find a bug, I can fix it and release the fix without having to wait for customer support to tell me 'we are working on it for the new version costing $xxx'. Richy C. --
Easiest way to illustrate this, that I can think of, is the date format.
Suppose you had your files with filenames corresponding with dates and alphabetical listing on your machine.
Using the 'human' date format of: dd/mm/ccyy or mm/dd/ccyy would produce dates like: 06151979 (15th June 1979) 2612200 (26th Decemeber 2000) which you couldn't easily look at and figure out the latest file date, but a 'computer friendly format' of ccyymmdd (in 'most significant' format) produce: 20001226 19791506 and the dates would be in the correct order.
It's just way things are - things that are easy for humans to understand aren't always the easiest/quickest way for computers so the method needs changing.
Perhaps if everybody that operated a legal MP3 site (ie a site that had only your own 'free-to-copy' music on) started a suit against RIAA for libel. I'm not sure if it would be possible ('RIAA has stated that all MP3 sites are illegal, mine isn't so they are saying I'm a criminal and that's libel'), but it would be fun to see how many lawsuits RIAA can have against them. I don't think that have X*Y lawyers:)
I actually meant a proper program, something like: 10 a$="10 a$=" 20 q$=CHR$34:b$="20 q$=CHR$34:b$=" 30 b$="40 PRINT a$;q$;a$;q$" 40 PRINT a$;q$;a$;q$ 50 PRINT b$;q$;b$;q$ 60 PRINT d$;q$;d$;q$ But as that is off the top of my head, it kinda doesn't print itself from line 30 onwards - but the code was something like that. IIRC the program (in Micro User IIRC) used functions, procedures, data statements the works - plus it did more than print itself out. RIchy C. --
I'm sure/., like tree-based magazines and papers, have a policy of 'editoral discreation' which means that no matter who advertise or who owns them, they write their stuff. In magazines this is done by totally keeping editoral and advertising departments seperate and I'm sure/. have a similiar setup. If (and it is a big if) VA do try and put pressure on Andover who try and put pressure on/., I'm sure the news will leak out and big a very very very big PR mistake for them. Whereas, if they were to support/. no matter what (ie if/. were to 'rubbish them' for some reason) then it'll be good PR. Good PR=happy customers=more customers. RIchy C. --
I know there was a program on the ol' BBC's (and I guess it could be easily ported to RISC OS) which not only rhymed, but also worked. There were also details of programs which would show their own code when ran (without doing any fancy memory tricks), but that's off topic... If only I could find the magazine articles and tweak it so it became rhyming Perl. RIchy C. --
I remember about a year ago (in Real Time) there was quite a lot of discussion about setting up USENET 2 that would be nearly 'spam-free' and have various agreements for distribution. Does anyone know what happened to this or if it is going to happen? I liked USENET because it was fast (I didn't have to remember which web page certain news was likely to appear on), but I stopped using it because of spam... RIchy C. --
Yeah - I know Acorn Computer Group were looking into this - and did infact produce a 'cut-down preview' system which would have produced the feed into the hardware. Unfortently, this was before all the Network Computing business which took up their time and money and eventually caused the company to break up (I think Pace Micro now have the rights to any CAVE implementation by them - but I'm not sure...:( ). RIchy C. --
Slashdot Mirror
As a UK webmaster
, I am slightly worried with the results of the trial.I use Demon for some of my backbone operations and I fully supported them in the case - I actually thought that they would go through with it and win, and I was disappointed that they didn't.
All Demon did was allow USENET news to work in the way it was designed - a message posted gets circulated around the world. Given the volume of traffic in USENET is is unreasonable that they are meant to be aware of every single posting, but the case hinged on the fact that Godfrey informed Demon on possible libel.
At no point (as far as I know) did he attempt to prove to Demon that the article would libel him, but instead sued (I believe he has 'acquired' a reputation for this, but I'm unable to confirm this). And Demon buckled.
Many webmasters (like myself) will now be worried that their site may be closed down because of something they may or may not say in the future and many of us are now considering moving our sites out of the UK (especially if they run a 'public bulletin board' or forum, or maybe even an adult website [see http://www.beebware.com/dir/Adult/.
All in all, its very worrying for UK webmasters, UK Internet users and the UK internet in general.
Richy C.
--
Since I submitted this article, I may as well fill everybody in
I think it 'nerd news' because not only was Jennicam one of the first (not the first - I agree that it was probably the Cambridge coffe pot), but her site is one of the busiest (and this is the first time I've known it to be down and, no, it was down before the story was posted).She also helped raise the media profile of the web and internet - I've lost track of the number of news articles about her and her site
Okay, her site isn't free (I'd hate to think how much she is paying per month in bandwidth charges), and she doesn't 'get her kit off' much - but that isn't the point of the site. It is to show an insight into her life and everything.
She has also recently sold her bed on Ebay for $2,760!
Hope that answers all your wondering...Richy C.
--
When you 'purchase' commerical software, you don't actually buy it. You buy a licence to USE the software and the software company is usual kind enough to provide you with a copy of the software with the licence.
If you don't want to use the licence (by following its terms and conditions etc) then you shouldn't use the software as the licence is the product you brought.
Slightly confusing, I know, but that's how it is.
In real life, however, who knows what you get up to in private.You aren't meant to transfer CDs to audio casettes, but many many many people do... That's why you often see the disclaimer 'copying of copyright materials is illegal' because the manufactours know it goes on, but they are just saying that the product isn't mean't to be used like that
I wonder what the legal position would be if DeCSS et al is relesed as 'it is just a disc fuller to help fill up your harddisc for testing purposes' and people then used it for 'other purposes' the authors would be liable for the misuse would they? I wouldn't have thought so...
Just my thoughts about the whole issue, remember that I'm not a lawyer :)
Richy C.
--
If they are selling it for 'Linux' and we try an run it on something like ARM Linux - we could have a very good case.
It'll be questionable who will actually buy it - very small market base (1 variant of Linux) and many people who do have Linux will know where to get DeCSS etc.
I can't see it selling myself.
Richy C.
--
Strangly enough, I have never received Good Times or the Bill Gates hoaxes - are these for real or just urban legends? :)
Nor have I received Mellissa - which is a shame cause I wanted to examine the source code (it couldn't infect my system anyway).
Has anyone else noticed that in the last few weeks the mainstream media seem to be taking a 'higher than normal' interest in these sort of things (.net in the UK's done recent features).
Somes I wonder who actually wrote the original hoaxes - you never see anyone claim the credit do you? I recent email I received placed the blame on aliens trying to overload our technology - I believe every word of itRichy C.
--
Yahho! has its own auction site ( http://auctions.yahoo.com IIRC) and obviously people have been auctioning off illegal warez. While I'm in all favour of suing Yahoo! (being a editor of ODP), and I support the companies in preventing software piracy, we have got to ask ourselves what will happen to other auction sites like eBay etc.
Richy C.
--
Excuse me, but if it is 'closed-source' only the developers can fix any security holes or bugs. And it might be only one developer that works on it. Even if it is a team it won't be 24/7. Open-Source on the other hand, can be fixed by anybody quickly. Therefore if *I* find a bug, I can fix it and release the fix without having to wait for customer support to tell me 'we are working on it for the new version costing $xxx'.
Richy C.
--
Easiest way to illustrate this, that I can think of, is the date format.
Suppose you had your files with filenames corresponding with dates and alphabetical listing on your machine.
Using the 'human' date format of: dd/mm/ccyy or mm/dd/ccyy would produce dates like:
06151979 (15th June 1979)
2612200 (26th Decemeber 2000)
which you couldn't easily look at and figure out the latest file date, but a 'computer friendly format' of ccyymmdd (in 'most significant' format) produce:
20001226
19791506
and the dates would be in the correct order.
It's just way things are - things that are easy for humans to understand aren't always the easiest/quickest way for computers so the method needs changing.
Just my 0.02c
RIchy C.
--
Perhaps if everybody that operated a legal MP3 site (ie a site that had only your own 'free-to-copy' music on) started a suit against RIAA for libel. :)
I'm not sure if it would be possible ('RIAA has stated that all MP3 sites are illegal, mine isn't so they are saying I'm a criminal and that's libel'), but it would be fun to see how many lawsuits RIAA can have against them.
I don't think that have X*Y lawyers
RIchy C.
--
Oops, guess who forget the tags :( Anyhow... sort it out yourselves, it is a bit off-topic anyhow...
RIchy C.
--
I actually meant a proper program, something like: 10 a$="10 a$=" 20 q$=CHR$34:b$="20 q$=CHR$34:b$=" 30 b$="40 PRINT a$;q$;a$;q$" 40 PRINT a$;q$;a$;q$ 50 PRINT b$;q$;b$;q$ 60 PRINT d$;q$;d$;q$ But as that is off the top of my head, it kinda doesn't print itself from line 30 onwards - but the code was something like that. IIRC the program (in Micro User IIRC) used functions, procedures, data statements the works - plus it did more than print itself out.
RIchy C.
--
I'm sure /., like tree-based magazines and papers, have a policy of 'editoral discreation' which means that no matter who advertise or who owns them, they write their stuff. In magazines this is done by totally keeping editoral and advertising departments seperate and I'm sure /. have a similiar setup. If (and it is a big if) VA do try and put pressure on Andover who try and put pressure on /., I'm sure the news will leak out and big a very very very big PR mistake for them. Whereas, if they were to support /. no matter what (ie if /. were to 'rubbish them' for some reason) then it'll be good PR. Good PR=happy customers=more customers.
RIchy C.
--
I know there was a program on the ol' BBC's (and I guess it could be easily ported to RISC OS) which not only rhymed, but also worked. There were also details of programs which would show their own code when ran (without doing any fancy memory tricks), but that's off topic... If only I could find the magazine articles and tweak it so it became rhyming Perl.
RIchy C.
--
I remember about a year ago (in Real Time) there was quite a lot of discussion about setting up USENET 2 that would be nearly 'spam-free' and have various agreements for distribution. Does anyone know what happened to this or if it is going to happen? I liked USENET because it was fast (I didn't have to remember which web page certain news was likely to appear on), but I stopped using it because of spam...
RIchy C.
--
Yeah - I know Acorn Computer Group were looking into this - and did infact produce a 'cut-down preview' system which would have produced the feed into the hardware. Unfortently, this was before all the Network Computing business which took up their time and money and eventually caused the company to break up (I think Pace Micro now have the rights to any CAVE implementation by them - but I'm not sure... :( ).
RIchy C.
--