To offset this "monopoly" that is legally created, patents have expiration dates. For example: Tylenol(acetaminophen) once cost 'too much' but once it's patent ran out other companies rushed in and the price dropped significantly.
Well, there are certainly fields of technology where patents where patents encourage new inventions but there are other fields where they actually do harm. Unfortunatly, patent laws tend to make more and more things patentable, and especially the US patent laws are very problematic. Another problem is that different fields of technology advance at different speeds, so you would need different patent expiry times, too. Even software patents (usually patents on computer-implemented mathematical algorithms or business models) would not be such a big problem if they expired within, say, one or two years.
But please not that what in the US is called a "deisgn patent" has not much to do with patents on innovations. It's more like a lightweight copyright for designs that are below the copyright level but are still supposed to be worth being protected.
It's not called "Program Files" in non-US versions of Windows. For example, in the German version it's just "Programme". There is actually a registry setting that tells install programmes where the equivalent of this folder ist, so Microsoft could easily change it to something like "Programmes", err, "Programs".
It is naive to think the cleaner API wins. Your argument closely parallels the Microsoft MFC vs. Borland OWL debate from years ago. OWL was a far better implementation, yet OWL's defeat was so complete most readers probably have no idea what it is.
OWL? Was n't that the original name of the Visual Component Libarary, that has now become (Free)CLX and is the basies for products such as Delphi or Kylix. It isn't that dead then. It might be quited dead for C++ but it the implementation for the Delphi language (originally called PASCAL with Borland extensions) isn't.
Can you write a closed source program with GPL software? NOT LIKELY...
All GNU compilers have an exception in their licence that allows you to write proprietary software. GTK and many GNU libraries are not GPLed but come under the LGPL. As long as you link to them dynamically (which most people do anyway), there's nothing that prevents you from using it in proprietary programmes.
This is why GNOME will eventually ``win'' over KDE: Most commercial applications will be based on GTK and GNOME, not Qt and KDE. (That is, unless someone replaces the Qt library with an LGPL clone.)
I dont know any other way to protect my investment and get return back for the effort put into this project. I would love to sell it as a pure open-source application, but even if I charge a small price compared to what these kind off applications do cost in the Windows world ($100 vs $1000-$5000) I fear my source-code would get pirated and spread over the internet.
Excuse me? How can an Open Source software be "pirated and spread over the Internet"? Open Source is not only about having the source code (that's called Shared Source), it's also about being allowed to distribute it.
I hope not. Beacuse if they are responsible for patent violations of their software by users then open source developers are going to be in for a world of hurt.
Open Source developers usually don't claim that they have the license to sub-license a patent to users using their product. If Microsoft is liable, it's because they gave wrong information to their users regarding patent issues. If a Open Source developer says to his users that it's still ok to use his software after he learned about a patent that covers the software (instead of warning them about the patent), then (a) he is plain stupid and (b) there's nothing wrong if he's liable for damages when his users have to pay damages to the patent holder.
If you READ THE ARTICLE, it notes that Timeline's position is that Microsoft is not a law firm, thus customers who relied on Microsoft's assertion that everything was OK failed to cover their own butts properly, and are potentially open to treble damages in court.
Microsoft's customers might have to pay damages to Timeline (this is what Timeline says arcording to the article) but THAT DOES NOT MEAN that Microsoft is not liable to recourse (as the post you replied to says). Maybe YOU should READ exactly what you reply to.
If SCO tries to "tax" Linux users or companies, the FSF just file suit for violation of the GPL and demands payment of exactly what SCO would collect. Does it really work this way?
Not necessarily. You never know what the FSF can demand as payment; the question here is what Open Source Software is worth? Nothing, maybe, as it's distributed freely?
Something cached in RAM is sometimes recoverable if the machine has not been switched off since the offending item was cached.
You show complete ignorance of how computer programmes work: In order to display a web page, it has to be loaded into RAM anyway. A "RAM cache" only does not delete it immediatly after you leave a page. So even without a "RAM cache", it's possible that you will find fragments of "secure" web pages in dump files.
Re:The reason why DSL beats Cable outside of the U
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is because the U.S is NOT densly populated. For example, Europe is extremely dense in population thus make DSL an easy choice with many people close to the relay stations (within 3 miles). Where as in the U.S. you have mountains, deserts, artic tundra where lower population live so they must use cable.
The problem with this theory, however, is that cable also needs densly populated areas. Although you probably could install it everywhere, it just does not pay off for the cable companies. Here in Germany there are many areas where you can't get cable TV but DSL is available.
I believe the difference between the US and a European country like Germany is that in the US, phone companies usually don't own the TV cable network. In Germany, for example, the Deutsche Telekom (a former governmental organisation) owns most of both the phone and TV cable network; they just don't offer Internet over TV cable.
Re:Building on the existing infrastructure
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DSL does require at least a 4-wire phone line,...
Nonsense. DSL works well over a pair (i.e. 2) of copper wires. (I know how many wires I have connected to the splitter and the DSL modem.)
Well, the orbiter (that's the plain-like part, a Space Shuttle is the whole system including the solid rocket boosters and the external tank) of Challanger survived the explosion. The crew was only killed by the impact on the water surface.
And the cheapest provider (which you can use by just dialing some digits in front of the number) charges 2.5eurocents per minute (1.50EUR/h). Yes, that's cheaper than what Deutsche Telekom charges for local calls during peak hours (4eurocents/min)!
No, planes don't go at 1000 km/h, it's more like 800 to 900 km/h (unless there's a strong wind from behind).
Then, you can't compare an "Amtrak" train to a modern Maglev train: If an aircraft takes 6 hours, this is about 5 1/2 hours pure flight time, and at least 30 minutes "buffer" and wait time. A Maglev train at 500 km/h would need about 9 hours for the same distance but it won't need the 30 minutes buffer (on bigger airports more), it takes you directly from city centre to city centre (saves travelling from and to the airports, each 1 hour), you don't have to be at the station 1 to 2 hours before departure. If you add that, the flight will actually take 9 to 10 hours!
Yeah, I think it should be rather obvious that maglev trains are not suited for distances as short as this.
Actually, they are: They can accelerate very quickly, which is important if you have small distances between stations. Of course, you would not need an expensive Transrapid here, a simpler (and cheaper) system with a maximum speed of something between 100 and 160 km/h will do.
The question is not whether it's political speech or commercial speech. The most important aspect of free speech is public speech. This is not what Verizone intends; the data is to valuable to make it avaialble publically.
The real question is:
Who owns the data they want to sell? Or better: Whom does it belong to?
If the data belongs to their customers -- it's data of their private life after all -- then Verizon can't sell it without authorization just because it is not theirs.
Yeah they have rights as a corporation, but what about my rights as a US citizen?
Come on, it's obvious that the rights of a corporation are stronger than those of a simple citizen. This is the American Way[TM]. If you say otherwise, you are hurting the American economy, so are unpatriotic. *scnr*
According to the GPL, you have to give out the code without further restrictions if you distribute binaries. Currently, that's not a problem because Peercast can't violate their own copyright. But it will be a problem once they accept code from 3rd parties into their code.
A system allowing a user of a browser program on a computer connected to an open distributed hypermedia system to access and execute an embedded program object. The program object is embedded into a hypermedia document much like data objects. [...]
So it seems that this patent does not cover plugins but only plugins (or anything integrated into the browser!) that execute code loaded over the Network. So Java, ActiveX, ECMAScript (aka Javascript and JScript), and some aspects of Flash are covered by the patent, not plugins that simply view embedded data. (Yes, I know that most data formats allow to embed scripting languages, too.)
If you think about it, it might have been better if the USPS and other governmental or government-owned organisations postal services had built the email network. We would probably now have somthing like this:
X.400-based (more complex but also more powerful than RFC 822 email)
In most countries, you'd be able to choose from several providers by now.
You could keep your email address when switching providers.
Well, the Deutsche Post AG (the German counterpart of the USPS) does offer a free(!) email service called "ePost" just like Hotmail, Yahoo, web.de, GMX and many others. However, they don't seem to have a lot of users; one does rarely see an ePost email address (*@epost.de).
Slashdot Mirror
But please not that what in the US is called a "deisgn patent" has not much to do with patents on innovations. It's more like a lightweight copyright for designs that are below the copyright level but are still supposed to be worth being protected.
It's not called "Program Files" in non-US versions of Windows. For example, in the German version it's just "Programme". There is actually a registry setting that tells install programmes where the equivalent of this folder ist, so Microsoft could easily change it to something like "Programmes", err, "Programs".
It might be quited dead for C++ but it the implementation for the Delphi language (originally called PASCAL with Borland extensions) isn't.
GTK and many GNU libraries are not GPLed but come under the LGPL. As long as you link to them dynamically (which most people do anyway), there's nothing that prevents you from using it in proprietary programmes.
This is why GNOME will eventually ``win'' over KDE: Most commercial applications will be based on GTK and GNOME, not Qt and KDE. (That is, unless someone replaces the Qt library with an LGPL clone.)
If a Open Source developer says to his users that it's still ok to use his software after he learned about a patent that covers the software (instead of warning them about the patent), then (a) he is plain stupid and (b) there's nothing wrong if he's liable for damages when his users have to pay damages to the patent holder.
Maybe YOU should READ exactly what you reply to.
Here in Germany there are many areas where you can't get cable TV but DSL is available.
I believe the difference between the US and a European country like Germany is that in the US, phone companies usually don't own the TV cable network. In Germany, for example, the Deutsche Telekom (a former governmental organisation) owns most of both the phone and TV cable network; they just don't offer Internet over TV cable.
Well, the orbiter (that's the plain-like part, a Space Shuttle is the whole system including the solid rocket boosters and the external tank) of Challanger survived the explosion. The crew was only killed by the impact on the water surface.
And the cheapest provider (which you can use by just dialing some digits in front of the number) charges 2.5eurocents per minute (1.50EUR/h). Yes, that's cheaper than what Deutsche Telekom charges for local calls during peak hours (4eurocents/min)!
No, planes don't go at 1000 km/h, it's more like 800 to 900 km/h (unless there's a strong wind from behind).
Then, you can't compare an "Amtrak" train to a modern Maglev train: If an aircraft takes 6 hours, this is about 5 1/2 hours pure flight time, and at least 30 minutes "buffer" and wait time. A Maglev train at 500 km/h would need about 9 hours for the same distance but it won't need the 30 minutes buffer (on bigger airports more), it takes you directly from city centre to city centre (saves travelling from and to the airports, each 1 hour), you don't have to be at the station 1 to 2 hours before departure. If you add that, the flight will actually take 9 to 10 hours!
Not really. If you have a look at the map, you can see that only a few tracks are designed for speeds above 250km/h.
The real question is:
- Who owns the data they want to sell? Or better: Whom does it belong to?
If the data belongs to their customers -- it's data of their private life after all -- then Verizon can't sell it without authorization just because it is not theirs.Pick one!
The hardware is nothing that can't be replaced.
According to the GPL, you have to give out the code without further restrictions if you distribute binaries. Currently, that's not a problem because Peercast can't violate their own copyright. But it will be a problem once they accept code from 3rd parties into their code.
(Yes, I know that most data formats allow to embed scripting languages, too.)
We would probably now have somthing like this:
Well, the Deutsche Post AG (the German counterpart of the USPS) does offer a free(!) email service called "ePost" just like Hotmail, Yahoo, web.de, GMX and many others. However, they don't seem to have a lot of users; one does rarely see an ePost email address (*@epost.de).