GPL Legal Battle Coming? posted by Dan Gillmor 12:06 AM
The free software movement has surmounted all kinds of obstacles in its short history, moving from a political statement to a prominent position inside the world's largest companies.
A battle may -- repeat, may -- be shaping up over whether the GNU General Public License, or GPL, can be enforced. If it gets to court, this could be a pivotal case.
The GPL is the legal core of the movement. It's basically a copyright agreement. It gives users of GPL-licensed software the right to see the source code, or programming instructions, of the software and to make modifications. But there's a string attached: If you create software that is derived from software previously licensed under the GPL, you must release what you've written under the same license.
The Free Software Foundation (FSF), which monitors the scene and enforces the GPL, says a Mountain View company has been violating the GPL for more than a year. The foundation calls the violations serious and is threatening a lawsuit.
The specifics of the FSF's beef with OpenTV have to do with the company's policies in sending source code to licensees of OpenTV software tools created under the GPL. According to the foundation, OpenTV has either refused to provide the code, or has attached improper conditions on providing it, to several programmers who have every right to it.
OpenTV's intellectual property lawyer, Scott Doyle, says there's been missed communications on both sides but that the company has no intention of violating any legal agreements. He says the company plans to post the code in question online.
But if the FSF is right that OpenTV is violating the GPL, and if this behavior is found to be legal by the courts, the entire free-software and open-source movements could be derailed. Agreeing to share the improvements you make in the GPL-licensed software you've used is an essential part of the larger ecosystem.
Some people I respect say the GPL is a bad idea, period. They say it's too restrictive of programmers' rights, in the sense of forcing them to open what they've done to the world. Fine: If you don't like the GPL, don't create software from code that used it in the first place. Then put different licensing terms on what you've done.
But legal agreements are supposed to matter in our system. Just because the GPL turns the idea of intellectual property somewhat around doesn't make it less valid.
First test, method1 is not final Running method1() TIME: 4577 Running method2() TIME: 4596 Running method2() TIME: 4637 Running method1() TIME: 4547 Running method1() TIME: 4547 Running method2() TIME: 4566 public static void method1() AVERAGE: 4557 public static final void method2() AVERAGE: 4599.66
Second test, method1 is now final Running method1() TIME: 4557 Running method2() TIME: 4576 Running method2() TIME: 4537 Running method1() TIME: 4597 Running method1() TIME: 4636 Running method2() TIME: 4557 public static final void method1() AVERAGE: 4596.66 public static void method1() AVERAGE: 4556.66
Here is the code I used. Its ugly, but I did it the way I did to best mitigate the effects of the JVM optimizing the code:
package benchmarks;
public class FinalTest {
public static int INC;
public static final void method1() { INC++; }
public static void method2() { INC++; }
public final static int TEST = 1000000000;
public static void main(String[] args) {
long start;
INC = 0;
start = System.currentTimeMillis();
System.out.println("Running method1()");
for(int i=0; i<TEST; i++) method1();
System.out.println("TIME: "+(System.currentTimeMillis()-start));
And I assume that since you don't want to pay any taxes, you don't want to use any of the services our government provides..
You won't be able to use most roads, so you'll have to walk but if you get mugged, the police can't help you. You can't get food from the supermarket, because of all the subsidies the government provides food producers...
It's a never ending battle between the republican types (who hate government involvement) and the democratic types who want more centralized/governmental control.
While I think that there is such thing as "too much taxes", I don't think we're there yet. The only problem with this system (IMHO) is that when each state has their own laws, it will become very difficult for small businesses to conform and collect the proper taxes for each state.
If the states want money from online sales, propose a federal tax, whose money would be split between states proportional to the ecomerce that is done in each state.
While the system wouldn't be perfect, it would be a huge step up from 50 separate laws!
I want to know more about its general feel! I want to know more about what I might not like! I want to know more than "There are parts that need to be polished, but ignore my last sentance"!
I agree that some laws should be made to take into account motivation (*cough* DMCA) rather than just the action, but there must be limits.
While very utopian, there are two problems with only passing laws based on motivation that come to mind.
Its very difficult to determine true motivation, and even if the person's motivation is good, that person could be walking all over the rights of another.
You've got it backwards (like the soviet russia joke..). In the matrix, they only know what fried chicken tastes like, thus everything tastes like fried chicken.
The article attempts to explain how the matrix can know the taste of fried chicken, but not the taste of anything else.
To take the cynical view, anything can be explained in a made-up universe. Just look at all the "scientific" explanation for events in Star Wars (midiclroians, anyone?).
if your job can be done capably by someone who has virtually no contact with management, halfway around the world, then you're not doing a good job. If you are a good, educated programmer, you have nothing to worry about.
This would be true if the only reason outsourcing happens was because of quality. Many times, outsourcing happens because it is simply cheaper to hire foreign workers.
In America, there is a high standard of living. This forces companies to pay more, so that the employees can live. It costs the company less if they're paying in Rupees instead of Dollars.
I'm not advocating oppression of any people. I just want people to know that quality is not the only reason for outsourcing.
This won't make any difference. We already know the musicians don't see much (if any) of the money collected, we know the RIAA inflates their reported losses, now we know how similar these file trading systems are to windows.
How does this help the Iraqi people? All this does is give the rest of the world more domain space, while not giving Iraq the full value of their "property".
Why couldn't it be an Iraqi company that sells the domains? This would allow the country to keep all of the proceeds, instead of only getting some of the value.
I'm not against the UK, the US, France or anybody, but I think this might be one area where this company is being opportunistic.
With non-bytecode langauges, the compiler can optimize to the environment. It can re-order code based on the fastest execution time for the platform the code is compiled for.
Java (and other bytecode languages) were desinged to run well not just on a single platform, but on a variety of platforms. So as a trade-off, you lose environment-specific optimizations at compile time.
JIT JRE/compilers can work to prevent this. They can further optimize the bytecodes at execution time because they are platform specific.
LAN = Local Area Network WAN = Wide Area Network MAN = Metropoliton Area Network WOMAN = Wide Open Metropolitan Area Network, which is what most of those 802.11 networks will be...
You're dissing perl for being quick and dirty, but just because you can use a shortcut, doesn't mean you have to. I can code with perl and have it come out looking as clean as Pascal (or even *gulp* Java).
Things can be done in other "structured" languages that would be as unreadable as the most obfuscated perl code. Being able to read your code 9 months from now is more a function of programmer discipline than the language used.
This game was written in perl, when I was learning, 5 years ago, and because I used good design and comments, I can still read and update the code.
After reading the article, I can say I feel mislead. I clicked expecting to find something about how the government has just built some giant gravity-defying rooms, but instead I find that the goal of the military is to make our soldiers fight without even knowing their fighting.
IMHO, they got the wrong things out of Enders Game. There is value in soldiers not knowing the reality of fighting... But that makes any Big Brother scenario all the more scary.
It reminds me a little of the movie Toys (Plot Outline: An eccentric toymaker finds his family business horribly misused by his militaristic uncle who is bequeathed control of the company). Where a has-been general trains some youngsters to play video games, while in fact they're controlling RC weapons of war.
Click here (Not like goats.ex... or whatever that other site is)
This is why retail products should get an "Evil-bit"... Or some sort of barcode that can be scanned to say "I'm an evil product!"
Games on demand? Too soon?....
on
Games on Demand
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I don't think its too soon for games on demand.. Look at all the people who play on sites like pop-cap games, yahoo games and msn zone. There are many games that are available on demand, and as thus are played on demand.
I think the factor that will truly bring this idea success will be when you don't have to download to play the game. You visit the URL, and the game plays... Maybe that would require the game to install on demand... or maybe it already exists with languages like java and flash, where all you need to download are some datafiles (And a small amount of game code).
Slashdot Mirror
GPL Legal Battle Coming?
posted by Dan Gillmor 12:06 AM
The free software movement has surmounted all kinds of obstacles in its short history, moving from a political statement to a prominent position inside the world's largest companies.
A battle may -- repeat, may -- be shaping up over whether the GNU General Public License, or GPL, can be enforced. If it gets to court, this could be a pivotal case.
The GPL is the legal core of the movement. It's basically a copyright agreement. It gives users of GPL-licensed software the right to see the source code, or programming instructions, of the software and to make modifications. But there's a string attached: If you create software that is derived from software previously licensed under the GPL, you must release what you've written under the same license.
The Free Software Foundation (FSF), which monitors the scene and enforces the GPL, says a Mountain View company has been violating the GPL for more than a year. The foundation calls the violations serious and is threatening a lawsuit.
The specifics of the FSF's beef with OpenTV have to do with the company's policies in sending source code to licensees of OpenTV software tools created under the GPL. According to the foundation, OpenTV has either refused to provide the code, or has attached improper conditions on providing it, to several programmers who have every right to it.
OpenTV's intellectual property lawyer, Scott Doyle, says there's been missed communications on both sides but that the company has no intention of violating any legal agreements. He says the company plans to post the code in question online.
But if the FSF is right that OpenTV is violating the GPL, and if this behavior is found to be legal by the courts, the entire free-software and open-source movements could be derailed. Agreeing to share the improvements you make in the GPL-licensed software you've used is an essential part of the larger ecosystem.
Some people I respect say the GPL is a bad idea, period. They say it's too restrictive of programmers' rights, in the sense of forcing them to open what they've done to the world. Fine: If you don't like the GPL, don't create software from code that used it in the first place. Then put different licensing terms on what you've done.
But legal agreements are supposed to matter in our system. Just because the GPL turns the idea of intellectual property somewhat around doesn't make it less valid.
--- From here ---
Tom Brown
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In soviet russia, all your us are belong to base!
Karma: Redundant
But it was given a rating of 9! That must mean its practically perfect!
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In Soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
Karma: Redundant
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In Soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
Karma: redundant
Here are the results I found, the code is below:
First test, method1 is not final
Running method1() TIME: 4577
Running method2() TIME: 4596
Running method2() TIME: 4637
Running method1() TIME: 4547
Running method1() TIME: 4547
Running method2() TIME: 4566
public static void method1() AVERAGE: 4557
public static final void method2() AVERAGE: 4599.66
Second test, method1 is now final
Running method1() TIME: 4557
Running method2() TIME: 4576
Running method2() TIME: 4537
Running method1() TIME: 4597
Running method1() TIME: 4636
Running method2() TIME: 4557
public static final void method1() AVERAGE: 4596.66
public static void method1() AVERAGE: 4556.66
Here is the code I used. Its ugly, but I did it the way I did to best mitigate the effects of the JVM optimizing the code:
Basically, the original story was just a load of crap!
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In Soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
And I assume that since you don't want to pay any taxes, you don't want to use any of the services our government provides..
You won't be able to use most roads, so you'll have to walk but if you get mugged, the police can't help you. You can't get food from the supermarket, because of all the subsidies the government provides food producers...
Basically, you want something for nothing.
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In Soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
It's a never ending battle between the republican types (who hate government involvement) and the democratic types who want more centralized/governmental control.
While I think that there is such thing as "too much taxes", I don't think we're there yet. The only problem with this system (IMHO) is that when each state has their own laws, it will become very difficult for small businesses to conform and collect the proper taxes for each state.
If the states want money from online sales, propose a federal tax, whose money would be split between states proportional to the ecomerce that is done in each state.
While the system wouldn't be perfect, it would be a huge step up from 50 separate laws!
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In Soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
Great! Another positive review!
/RANT
I want to know more about its general feel! I want to know more about what I might not like! I want to know more than "There are parts that need to be polished, but ignore my last sentance"!
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In Soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
Adds new meaning to Garbage In, Garbage Out
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In Soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
I agree that some laws should be made to take into account motivation (*cough* DMCA) rather than just the action, but there must be limits.
While very utopian, there are two problems with only passing laws based on motivation that come to mind.
Its very difficult to determine true motivation, and even if the person's motivation is good, that person could be walking all over the rights of another.
An online Starcraft RPG? only at
In Soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
You've got it backwards (like the soviet russia joke..). In the matrix, they only know what fried chicken tastes like, thus everything tastes like fried chicken.
The article attempts to explain how the matrix can know the taste of fried chicken, but not the taste of anything else.
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In the matrix, soviet russia jokes about you!
To take the cynical view, anything can be explained in a made-up universe. Just look at all the "scientific" explanation for events in Star Wars (midiclroians, anyone?).
That said, its a very impressive article!
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In Soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
Too many acronyms!
My head hurts!
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
I posted this awhile ago, but it seems to fit here too..
LAN = Local Area Network
WAN = Wide Area Network
MAN = Metropoliton Area Network
WOMAN = Wide Open Metropolitan Area Network
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In Soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
This would be true if the only reason outsourcing happens was because of quality. Many times, outsourcing happens because it is simply cheaper to hire foreign workers.
In America, there is a high standard of living. This forces companies to pay more, so that the employees can live. It costs the company less if they're paying in Rupees instead of Dollars.
I'm not advocating oppression of any people. I just want people to know that quality is not the only reason for outsourcing.
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In Soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base.
This won't make any difference. We already know the musicians don't see much (if any) of the money collected, we know the RIAA inflates their reported losses, now we know how similar these file trading systems are to windows.
So what?
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
How does this help the Iraqi people? All this does is give the rest of the world more domain space, while not giving Iraq the full value of their "property".
Why couldn't it be an Iraqi company that sells the domains? This would allow the country to keep all of the proceeds, instead of only getting some of the value.
I'm not against the UK, the US, France or anybody, but I think this might be one area where this company is being opportunistic.
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
You expect something like "Everything is OK" from slashdot?
Maybe you haven't been here very long...
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
With non-bytecode langauges, the compiler can optimize to the environment. It can re-order code based on the fastest execution time for the platform the code is compiled for.
Java (and other bytecode languages) were desinged to run well not just on a single platform, but on a variety of platforms. So as a trade-off, you lose environment-specific optimizations at compile time.
JIT JRE/compilers can work to prevent this. They can further optimize the bytecodes at execution time because they are platform specific.
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In soviet Russia, all your us are belong to base!
LAN = Local Area Network
WAN = Wide Area Network
MAN = Metropoliton Area Network
WOMAN = Wide Open Metropolitan Area Network, which is what most of those 802.11 networks will be...
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
You're dissing perl for being quick and dirty, but just because you can use a shortcut, doesn't mean you have to. I can code with perl and have it come out looking as clean as Pascal (or even *gulp* Java).
Things can be done in other "structured" languages that would be as unreadable as the most obfuscated perl code. Being able to read your code 9 months from now is more a function of programmer discipline than the language used.
This game was written in perl, when I was learning, 5 years ago, and because I used good design and comments, I can still read and update the code.
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
After reading the article, I can say I feel mislead. I clicked expecting to find something about how the government has just built some giant gravity-defying rooms, but instead I find that the goal of the military is to make our soldiers fight without even knowing their fighting.
IMHO, they got the wrong things out of Enders Game. There is value in soldiers not knowing the reality of fighting... But that makes any Big Brother scenario all the more scary.
It reminds me a little of the movie Toys (Plot Outline: An eccentric toymaker finds his family business horribly misused by his militaristic uncle who is bequeathed control of the company). Where a has-been general trains some youngsters to play video games, while in fact they're controlling RC weapons of war.
Scary, isn't it!
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
Click here (Not like goats.ex... or whatever that other site is)
This is why retail products should get an "Evil-bit"... Or some sort of barcode that can be scanned to say "I'm an evil product!"
I don't think its too soon for games on demand.. Look at all the people who play on sites like pop-cap games, yahoo games and msn zone. There are many games that are available on demand, and as thus are played on demand.
I think the factor that will truly bring this idea success will be when you don't have to download to play the game. You visit the URL, and the game plays... Maybe that would require the game to install on demand... or maybe it already exists with languages like java and flash, where all you need to download are some datafiles (And a small amount of game code).
An online browser-based Starcraft RPG? Only at
In soviet russia, all your us are belong to base!
You can find a good ROT13 decoder here:
This link
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at
In soviet russia, all your us are belong to base!
Asking Slashdot for an unbiased news source is like asking Howard Stern to be homosexual. It just ain't gonna happen.
On the other hand, here you can find many different biasses. Anti-microsoft, pro-linux, pro-bsd, etc.. Eventually they all counteract.
The trick is to realize that each comment is biased, and to compare it to all the other comments to get the real truth.
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at