Too bad private citizens don't have the financial resources to lobby the government.
Wait, I have an idea! We should form a corporation, invite every citizen to join, and then pool our money together in it for lobbying. This way we can out-lobby the big corporations and finally return control to the people.
I propose we call this new corporation "Federal government of the United States".
If the RIAA and MPAA became outlawed "cartels" by Congress, then so too would other legit organizations like IEEE, ASME, ISO, the Underwriters Laboratory, and so on.
RIAA and MPAA are trusts whose purpose is to maximize profit for their member companies. IEEE and ASME are non-profit organizations of natural persons.
ISO
ISO is outside the jurisdiction of US courts. Furthermore they are a standardization agency, not a trust.
Linux and BSD conforms to the Single UNIX Specification, but they are not officially certified due to cost issues.
The car analogy would be that I built my own car in the garage, but since I can't afford to build 5 more of them and send them to NHTSA for crash testing, the government cannot register the vehicle. So I can only use it on my private property. For all intents and purposes it's still a car; it's simply not registered as a car.
But if you look at the history of corporations (at least in the tech industry) you'll find way more going on than the simple pursuit of "profit". There are rivalries, moves to built up public awareness, etc. Tons of things that are not directly devoted to increasing profit, not even on a long-term basis.
If you have good enough lawyers, illegal activities rarely results in a conviction. Just look at United States v. Microsoft (the anti-trust case). Even though Microsoft was convicted, their punishment was essentially a slap on the wrist.
Please allow me to play the devil's advocate on this one:
MS actively fights against open source.
Microsoft is a corporation and thus it has only one mandate: to maximize profit. As a shareholder of Microsoft, I expect it to do everything in its power to generate profit. I expect its CEO to spread FUD against FOSS at every chance, because that's part of his job description. I even expect it to utilize illegeal practices, as long as the expect profit is greater than the cost of settlement.
If Microsoft is not fighting against open source at every opportunity, the shareholders can sue the board of directors on the ground that they failed to fulfilled their duty of care. Microsoft already lost to FOSS in the server realm, and if it doesn't spread FUD it will completely lose the desktop realm as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Too bad private citizens don't have the financial resources to lobby the government.
Wait, I have an idea! We should form a corporation, invite every citizen to join, and then pool our money together in it for lobbying. This way we can out-lobby the big corporations and finally return control to the people.
I propose we call this new corporation "Federal government of the United States".
A single human cell cannot function without the rest of the body.
A single employee can function without the rest of the corporation.
If an entity can not vote, then it should not have rights.
Of course corporations can vote. They just use the special ballot that lists Benjamin Franklin as a candidate every election.
darkComet? RAT?
At least they didn't name it NigerianPrince.
And here I thought GIMP was the only FOSS project with a name problem.
The <br> tag inserts a line break. You're welcome.
For Slashdot points, I will now note that what this guy planted was a logic bomb, not a virus.
I'm guessing Detective Sherlock here didn't read the title.
Is there a penalty for filing trolling civil suits and trolling patents?
Please tell me they're paying more than just the filing costs for abusing the legal system.
You know you have a coke addiction when you've memorized coke.com's IP address in case of DNS failures.
Depending on the organic compound, it could end up quite delicious after you microwave it.
Summaries are assumed to be true, not opinion.
Don't assume. It makes an ass out of you and me.
If the RIAA and MPAA became outlawed "cartels" by Congress, then so too would other legit organizations like IEEE, ASME, ISO, the Underwriters Laboratory, and so on.
RIAA and MPAA are trusts whose purpose is to maximize profit for their member companies. IEEE and ASME are non-profit organizations of natural persons.
ISO
ISO is outside the jurisdiction of US courts. Furthermore they are a standardization agency, not a trust.
Underwriters Laboratory
UL is actually one of the smallest among the nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories SGS S.A. for example, is 10 times larger in terms of employees.
Linux and BSD conforms to the Single UNIX Specification, but they are not officially certified due to cost issues.
The car analogy would be that I built my own car in the garage, but since I can't afford to build 5 more of them and send them to NHTSA for crash testing, the government cannot register the vehicle. So I can only use it on my private property. For all intents and purposes it's still a car; it's simply not registered as a car.
Don't believe everything you hear.
Precisely.
Since Slashdot already covered it, I just assumed it would be fine to omit the disclaimer at the end of the joke.
I heard Sony loses money for every PS3 sold, so I went ahead and brought one to help out the cause.
But if you look at the history of corporations (at least in the tech industry) you'll find way more going on than the simple pursuit of "profit". There are rivalries, moves to built up public awareness, etc. Tons of things that are not directly devoted to increasing profit, not even on a long-term basis.
Can you please give me one or two concrete examples?
The last company that tried corporate philanthropy was sued by its shareholders and lost in court.
Nice straw man.
I was referring to how Microsoft has gotten away with illegal business practices before.
If you have good enough lawyers, illegal activities rarely results in a conviction. Just look at United States v. Microsoft (the anti-trust case). Even though Microsoft was convicted, their punishment was essentially a slap on the wrist.
MS actively fights against open source.
Microsoft is a corporation and thus it has only one mandate: to maximize profit. As a shareholder of Microsoft, I expect it to do everything in its power to generate profit. I expect its CEO to spread FUD against FOSS at every chance, because that's part of his job description. I even expect it to utilize illegeal practices, as long as the expect profit is greater than the cost of settlement.
If Microsoft is not fighting against open source at every opportunity, the shareholders can sue the board of directors on the ground that they failed to fulfilled their duty of care. Microsoft already lost to FOSS in the server realm, and if it doesn't spread FUD it will completely lose the desktop realm as well.
Unfortunately the federal government has sovereign immunity in cases like this.
However without the Arduino they wouldn't have enough blog-creds to get on /..
PS: What's a better alternative to "/.."?
I sincerely apologize for combining anti-semitism, meme spewing, and off-topic all in one post, but I believe this image is relevant.
there's irony or something like that in the air.
Be careful, iron dust particles could damage the magnetic storage mediums.
I think GP was suggesting running shell as root on a permanent basis.
With all the compatibility problems, it wouldn't surprise me if Lynx is the only test case when the design is modified.
but we're pretty sure full production won't start until .. official launch keynote.
Why would they wait until the official launch to start full production? Don't they need to build up a significant stock by the shipping date?