Right. And this is why they CAN NOT just march in wherever they want, whenever they want, and do their raids. They CANNOT demand license documentation, they CANNOT install software, etc. without either a court order or police and a search warrant. I would do exactly what pitcrew suggested -- tell them to go to hell.
From the article: failure to produce licenses for all commercial or shareware software will constitute prima facie evidence of illegal possession
This, IMO, is absolute bullshit. It's like the police going through your refrigerator, making you produce receipts for every gallon of milk in there, and automatically assuming that the milk you can't account for with receipts was stolen from the local grocery store. They are assuming you to be guilty until you can prove yourself innocent. This is not the way our government works (or is supposed to work); the burden of proof is supposed to be on them, not you.
Does anybody know what would happen if you simply "invited" Microsoft (or any other software supplier, for that matter)to get the hell off your property should they attempt to audit? I mean, what kind of teeth do they have?
Micro$oft is a private entity, much like an individual such as you or I. Thus, if they came to audit you and didn't have a search warrant and law enforcement officials with them, you would have every legal right to tell them to get the hell off your property. Think of it this way -- if some schmuck off the street decided that he wanted to go through each and every one of your computers and get the license #s off of them, what would you do? That's right, you would tell him to get the hell out before you filed trespassing charges on him. Micro$oft is no different; they are a private entity with NO legal right to perform law enforcement-type searches.
ZDnet is reporting he is proposing a bill for 'net privacy' requiring opt-in agreements when companies want to sell 'sensitive' information (medical history, sexual preference, etc.) and opt-out agreements when selling non-sensitive (buying habits
An interesting observation I just made:
When the data belongs to the consumer, Hollings (D-Disney) wants the data to be copyable. He'd be committing political suicide to not ask for at least some restrictions, so he introduces bills like this. As for the 'non-sensitive' opt-out data, I don't consider opt-out to be a restriction at all. I'll still get the spam, and (especially seeing how email spammers work) it's not exactly easy to trust anybody to honor opt-out requests.
BUT...when the data belongs to a corporation, he doesn't want it to be copyable at all. Witness the DMCA and the SSSCA/CBDTPA.
Now. Try and tell me he isn't biased against consumers and towards corporations.
If BSA wants to make an issue of it, let them - they would be laughed out of court.
The problem is, though, that most people do not have the time, money, or inclination to defend themselves in court, especially against such a giant monster as the BSA. Hence the reason the BSA tends to get what it wants when it wants it.
It is a legal requirement to keep the same OS? I'm not so sure....
If it's an OEM copy of Windows, then yes. In other words, if you buy a computer from a store with Windows preinstalled, then that copy of Windows must stay with that PC. But, in the rarer instances where people buy full-version copies of Windows from a store, then they may keep that copy for themselves (as long as they don't leave it on the PC they are donating).
It's simple, really. They encrypt e-books so that they will be able to use the DMCA on anyone that dares reverse the encryption, regardless of whether or not the reversal was for piracy or not. Can you say "Dmitry Sklyarov"?
Ive actually had zero problems with all my IBM drives
I've had zero success with my IBM hard drives. Put simply, IBM hard drives are junk. Even worse is their customer service -- when you try and RMA a hard drive, they send you "refurbished" hard drives, which is just a nice way of saying that they are hard drives that others have already RMAd! And if you want to try and get a refund out of them, just about the only way is to take them to small claims court.
IBM deserves to have to get out of the hard drive business, IMO.
interesting way of making your 802.11b device only work on windows... imagine it if you don't activate your MS software they can not only disable your PC, but your entire network. fun fun fun
*imitating Beach Boys*
And we'll have fun fun fun til MS takes the network away!
I know I'm just preaching to the choir here, but...
Telemarketing should be outlawed. Seriously. All it does is annoy people and invade their privacy, and for what? So someone can get an easy paycheck? Come on. Get off your you-know-what, find a real job, and stop supporting an industry that does NOTHING but piss people off.
I don't recall the media covering the DMCA, and that was pretty damn sensational. I know that they dumb it down quite a bit because they think we're all stupid in America
Or maybe it's because of the fact that not only are most of the major media outlets controlled by massive conglomerates (<sarcasm>thank you FTC for giving a shit about antitrust issues</sarcasm>) that have a stake in the *AA, but they know damn well that if the public knew anything about these issues, they would be opposed. And if the public became opposed in large enough numbers as could happen here, the issues might not pass. The corporations can't have that happen, now, can they?
It most certainly isn't the same thing. How many people have ever tried to use library photocopiers...ANY photocopier...to copy an entire book? That's right. Not very many people. It gets time-consuming and expensive very quickly. The photocopiers are there to allow fair use of the books, i.e. copying portions of them. Library staff would probably notice if you were trying to copy an entire book anyway (ex. 400 page book, copy 2 pages at a time, total time 10 seconds per copy == 2000 seconds = 30-45 minutes of you doing nothing but rapid fire copy-swap-deposit dime-lather-rinse-repeat), and they WOULD stop you.
They facilitate [hell - they exist solely for the purpose of] sharing books, music, magazines, whatever. And I think it is important to note that this company was not selling copyrighted material - it was only allowing its employees to exchange music.
There's a big difference that you're missing. Libraries allow patrons to borrow copyrighted material on the condition that said material will be returned and not illegally copied. If libraries were like MP3 servers as you claim they are, they would have printing presses in them, and you would take whatever books you want to the operator and have them make you a copy of the book. They would also have CD replication stations so that you could make copies of their CD collection at will.
Now not only are software companies allowed to come into your business and snoop around for no reason, the RIAA is allowed to come in as well?
They're not. Especially since they're not law enforcement. If the BSA or the RIAA shows up at your door, turn them away. They can't do a damn thing about it without law enforcement present AND a search warrant, which you are entitled to look at (so if the cops do accompany them, simply ask to see the search warrant).
the only "illegal" thing they did was reverse engineer the battle.net protocols
How is reverse engineering illegal? The law has historically viewed reverse engineering as legal, as long as patents and such are respected. If your trade secret (battle.net protocol = trade secret) gets reverse engineered, you're pretty much SOL. As for EULAs preventing reverse engineering, they're about as legally valid as a used piece of toilet paper.
I guess Linux isn't as polished, either, but when I'm developing, I prefer Linux to Windows by far. But when I'm writing, I prefer Word to anything else. Oh well.
Try the Linux version of WordPerfect. It works quite nicely.
Slashdot Mirror
They are not a government organization, right?
Right. And this is why they CAN NOT just march in wherever they want, whenever they want, and do their raids. They CANNOT demand license documentation, they CANNOT install software, etc. without either a court order or police and a search warrant. I would do exactly what pitcrew suggested -- tell them to go to hell.
From the article: failure to produce licenses for all commercial or shareware software will constitute prima facie evidence of illegal possession
This, IMO, is absolute bullshit. It's like the police going through your refrigerator, making you produce receipts for every gallon of milk in there, and automatically assuming that the milk you can't account for with receipts was stolen from the local grocery store. They are assuming you to be guilty until you can prove yourself innocent. This is not the way our government works (or is supposed to work); the burden of proof is supposed to be on them, not you.
Does anybody know what would happen if you simply "invited" Microsoft (or any other software supplier, for that matter)to get the hell off your property should they attempt to audit? I mean, what kind of teeth do they have?
Micro$oft is a private entity, much like an individual such as you or I. Thus, if they came to audit you and didn't have a search warrant and law enforcement officials with them, you would have every legal right to tell them to get the hell off your property. Think of it this way -- if some schmuck off the street decided that he wanted to go through each and every one of your computers and get the license #s off of them, what would you do? That's right, you would tell him to get the hell out before you filed trespassing charges on him. Micro$oft is no different; they are a private entity with NO legal right to perform law enforcement-type searches.
A Microsoft audit team is on the way.
Their name servers are under the "IE" domain...
.ie = Ireland
Instead, they see "Q3 Earnings Report.xls".
Quake 3 Earnings Report?
ZDnet is reporting he is proposing a bill for 'net privacy' requiring opt-in agreements when companies want to sell 'sensitive' information (medical history, sexual preference, etc.) and opt-out agreements when selling non-sensitive (buying habits
An interesting observation I just made:
When the data belongs to the consumer, Hollings (D-Disney) wants the data to be copyable. He'd be committing political suicide to not ask for at least some restrictions, so he introduces bills like this. As for the 'non-sensitive' opt-out data, I don't consider opt-out to be a restriction at all. I'll still get the spam, and (especially seeing how email spammers work) it's not exactly easy to trust anybody to honor opt-out requests.
BUT...when the data belongs to a corporation, he doesn't want it to be copyable at all. Witness the DMCA and the SSSCA/CBDTPA.
Now. Try and tell me he isn't biased against consumers and towards corporations.
If BSA wants to make an issue of it, let them - they would be laughed out of court.
The problem is, though, that most people do not have the time, money, or inclination to defend themselves in court, especially against such a giant monster as the BSA. Hence the reason the BSA tends to get what it wants when it wants it.
It is a legal requirement to keep the same OS? I'm not so sure....
If it's an OEM copy of Windows, then yes. In other words, if you buy a computer from a store with Windows preinstalled, then that copy of Windows must stay with that PC. But, in the rarer instances where people buy full-version copies of Windows from a store, then they may keep that copy for themselves (as long as they don't leave it on the PC they are donating).
pointlessness of encrypting e-books
It's simple, really. They encrypt e-books so that they will be able to use the DMCA on anyone that dares reverse the encryption, regardless of whether or not the reversal was for piracy or not. Can you say "Dmitry Sklyarov"?
Actually, IBM is going to stay in the hard drive market, but only for 330 hours per month.
/. editors only hate the MPAA for 330 hours per month?
Kind of like how
Ive actually had zero problems with all my IBM drives
I've had zero success with my IBM hard drives. Put simply, IBM hard drives are junk. Even worse is their customer service -- when you try and RMA a hard drive, they send you "refurbished" hard drives, which is just a nice way of saying that they are hard drives that others have already RMAd! And if you want to try and get a refund out of them, just about the only way is to take them to small claims court.
IBM deserves to have to get out of the hard drive business, IMO.
I wonder how long it will take for the bots to have Warn levels of 100%...
All they ask from you is to volunteer them a bit of information about yourself in return
There are those of us who value our privacy though. But all we have to do is supply fake information.
interesting way of making your 802.11b device only work on windows... imagine it if you don't activate your MS software they can not only disable your PC, but your entire network. fun fun fun
*imitating Beach Boys*
And we'll have fun fun fun til MS takes the network away!
(yes, it is past 2 am here)
A little bit of competition can only help the market.
That's not what Microsoft thinks...
How about instead, returning pages with the email address abuse@domain-that-spambot-is-coming-from all over them...
.edu, or .gov.
Most spambots know better than to send their crap to email addresses containing things like abuse, root, postmaster,
Also, in regard to the problem of root servers being queried every time a @randomdomain.com is looked up, could you not just use random IP addresses?
TRUE geeks buy hardware 'cause it's new and 'cause it lets you do more things faster.
Actually, true geeks design their own hardware from the circuit level up.
I know I'm just preaching to the choir here, but...
Telemarketing should be outlawed. Seriously. All it does is annoy people and invade their privacy, and for what? So someone can get an easy paycheck? Come on. Get off your you-know-what, find a real job, and stop supporting an industry that does NOTHING but piss people off.
I don't recall the media covering the DMCA, and that was pretty damn sensational. I know that they dumb it down quite a bit because they think we're all stupid in America
Or maybe it's because of the fact that not only are most of the major media outlets controlled by massive conglomerates (<sarcasm>thank you FTC for giving a shit about antitrust issues</sarcasm>) that have a stake in the *AA, but they know damn well that if the public knew anything about these issues, they would be opposed. And if the public became opposed in large enough numbers as could happen here, the issues might not pass. The corporations can't have that happen, now, can they?
but then they'll do like they did during the court case in 1999 and make a version of Windows which simply doesn't work
You mean like WinME?
It most certainly isn't the same thing. How many people have ever tried to use library photocopiers...ANY photocopier...to copy an entire book? That's right. Not very many people. It gets time-consuming and expensive very quickly. The photocopiers are there to allow fair use of the books, i.e. copying portions of them. Library staff would probably notice if you were trying to copy an entire book anyway (ex. 400 page book, copy 2 pages at a time, total time 10 seconds per copy == 2000 seconds = 30-45 minutes of you doing nothing but rapid fire copy-swap-deposit dime-lather-rinse-repeat), and they WOULD stop you.
They facilitate [hell - they exist solely for the purpose of] sharing books, music, magazines, whatever. And I think it is important to note that this company was not selling copyrighted material - it was only allowing its employees to exchange music.
There's a big difference that you're missing. Libraries allow patrons to borrow copyrighted material on the condition that said material will be returned and not illegally copied. If libraries were like MP3 servers as you claim they are, they would have printing presses in them, and you would take whatever books you want to the operator and have them make you a copy of the book. They would also have CD replication stations so that you could make copies of their CD collection at will.
Now not only are software companies allowed to come into your business and snoop around for no reason, the RIAA is allowed to come in as well?
They're not. Especially since they're not law enforcement. If the BSA or the RIAA shows up at your door, turn them away. They can't do a damn thing about it without law enforcement present AND a search warrant, which you are entitled to look at (so if the cops do accompany them, simply ask to see the search warrant).
the only "illegal" thing they did was reverse engineer the battle.net protocols
How is reverse engineering illegal? The law has historically viewed reverse engineering as legal, as long as patents and such are respected. If your trade secret (battle.net protocol = trade secret) gets reverse engineered, you're pretty much SOL. As for EULAs preventing reverse engineering, they're about as legally valid as a used piece of toilet paper.
I guess Linux isn't as polished, either, but when I'm developing, I prefer Linux to Windows by far. But when I'm writing, I prefer Word to anything else. Oh well.
Try the Linux version of WordPerfect. It works quite nicely.