Absolutely right. But a subscription model isn't a license. Here's how it works.
1) You send 10 bucks to Sveasoft to get a login/password, enabling you to download the firmware.
2) You download the firmware. Before now, you could download the source for free as a subscriber, so we're going to pretend this is still the case. So you download the source, too.
3) You are legally entitled to redistribute both the binary and the source code. You can redistribute it either as is or with your own modifications. HOWEVER
4) If you exercise option 3, Sveasoft removes your login/password. Nothing in the GPL says they have to continue offering the product to you--the closest clause is that they have to offer the SOURCE code to anyone they've given BINARIES to for some period of time.
As far as I can see, until now, they've done nothing legally wrong. However I'm not sure how charging $50 for the source code fits in here...
In America, you almost never HAVE to show ID to purchase anything. It's just that the store has the option of not serving you if you don't follow their rules. One of their rules could be to record the purchaser of expensive merchandise in case the bills turn out to be bogus, stolen, etc.
Part of our freedoms include the freedom to refuse service to customers. As long as it's not the government taking away our rights, it's more acceptable (though not always acceptable--see declining service to minorities because you don't like them).
Depends on how it's all implemented. Do fair use copying rights actually say you can change the content (remove CSS, for example)?
Also, people are complaining about potentially having to use Windows to make legitimate backups. I don't see the problem. If you want to make a legitimate backup of anything, you've got to have the equipment to do so. In this case, that equipment is Windows. We're just now getting licensed Linux DVD players, so maybe at some point there will be a Linux solution for creating legitimate DVD backups--but it will likely be closed source and then people like you will bitch about that.
Close. The discs should be readable in standalones, however the disc capacity is very slightly under the capacity of pressed DVDs. I think it comes out to 8.5gb as opposed to 9gb. So if a disc uses its entire capacity, you'll still have to use something like DVD Shrink, but you'll still see better quality. Most likely you'll be able to only shrink the extras and/or remove a sound track and have perfect quality for all the other audio and video.
Interesting, but not quite. Maxivista doesn't appear to actually be VGA-in at all--in uses a network connection and a device driver to simulate a SECOND monitor, but couldn't be used as a primary. Certainly their solution won't work under Linux as it's all done in software and is proprietary.
As the other poster points out, I want a laptop that I can take to any standard x86 PC, run a couple of wires from the laptop to the desktop, and have the display for the x86 PC appear on the laptop's LCD. Basically I want to be able to walk my laptop over to a headless PC and have local access to it.
Of course, it would almost require changes to the BIOS of the laptop to make something like this happen, but it sounds very close to what's going on here, only it's only TV-in instead of VGA-in.
All I want on a laptop is a VGA-input so I can use the LCD as the display for another computer. This is coming close to that, but it's still out of reach...
Defining genres is never easy, is it? "Remember RPGs before and after Baldur's Gate?" Yeah. I loved them. I also love Baldur's Gate. If you want me to go through the list....
Bard's Tale (series). Great areas to explore, statmonkey characters, and really one of the more fun games I've played, even to this day.
Ultima (1,2). Hardly RPGs, but amazing for their time. You create a character, you go through the quest, you beat the bad guy. Fun games, but maybe not in-depth enough to be called RPGs.
Ultima 3. Bridges the gap between the first two in the series and the real RPGs. Pretty close, but still quite lacking in the "role" department.
Ultima 4. If this isn't an RPG, I don't know what is. And it was fantastic. Finally the goal isn't just "run around and kill everything". In fact, if you did that, you would have a very difficult time finishing the game. This may, in fact, be the pinnacle of pre-Black Isle RPGs.
Rest of the Ultima series. Basically went downhill, though most of them were still quite fun.
Fallout 1 & 2. Again, definately an RPG, and quite fun. I miss games like it, where you take many, many different paths and really define your character however you want in order to finish the game.
Elder Scrolls 1 & 2. Quite in depth.. leads up to Morrowind, which is absolutely one of the best RPGs of today (not saying much, as there aren't many RPGs these days)
Wizardry series. More of a dungeon crawl than an RPG, but most people list it in this category.
Various TSR games. Pretty good RPGs usually..sometimes more adventure, but excellent.
Games after Black Isle (we'll even count games they put out): BG series, Icewind Dale (not nearly as much of an RPG as BG), Neverwinter Nights, Pools of Radiance. Morrowind, Knights of the Old Republic.. Various and sundry MMORPGs. Hmm. I don't really necessarily see a pattern. In fact, I liked most of the older RPGs better than most of the newer ones (using Baldur's Gate as the dividing line). That's not to say I didn't enjoy Baldur's Gate. It was refreshing after a drought of RPGs. But I don't know for sure that I'd consider it to have revolutionized the genre or anything.
Yeah, but it's part of the game. Actually, that's why I like Counterstrike quite a bit. Death is permanent for that round...no respawning, so you have to be careful. Not necessarily always sneaky, just careful. Can't expect to just be able to respawn and run back to do some killing, and you know that the people you kill are going to stay down until the round ends. It makes camping more legitimate, in my opinion.
I seem to recall hearing that the manuals for these games were all black and white (in the US--color in Japan). That's not catering to the collector crowd, in my opinion.
I'd buy some of these if there was the option to play updated versions of the titles. Just for the originals, I'll pass.
It's only bait and switch if the sales item is not available in sufficient quantities. It's perfectly legitimate to advertise a $10 NIC and then, when the customer comes in and asks about it, explain that the $20 NIC is better. All you have to do is have the discounted item available and as visible in the store as the "switch".
Actually, I think the specifics of the practice vary from state to state, but that's how it is down here. Are there really some states that won't let stores upsale you on advertised items?
If there are multiple rebates on a product, one of them will require just a photocopy of the barcode. In this case, you can buy the item, send off only the rebate requiring a photocopied barcode, then return said item. Hell, you never have to take it out of the plastic.... Scummy, true. Completely dishonest. But it can get you 20 bucks or so completely for free, so people do it.
Zone Alarm, for example, does not prevent a stupid user from connecting to a website with IE, downloading a trojan, and executing it (see the round of compromised sites running IIS from a few weeks back). The combination of security flaws in IE and IIS allowed the software to be executed with no intervention from the user (all they did was go to an innocent web site). Similarly, the hole that Sasser-alikes use is similarly without user intervention, other than not having a firewall installed.
These exploits cause code to be executed without the user's knowledge, and thus is a perfectly plausible situation when my scenario could occur. For a very slightly less malicious example, any "free" software that is bundled with adware, spyware, or anything else that is discreetly installed without the user knowing it could do the same thing.
Yeah, but if you go to the article, there's nothing about "killer cans" in there at all. That was all Slashdot.
Kinda makes me sick--this is definately the most sensationalist headline Slashdot's ever posted... And here I thought the article would be about Killer Coke.
Out of curiousity, what stops the malware/spyware from clicking the "Yes, let this program access the Internet." button when it pops up? If you have to type a password, what stops it from waiting until you type it for another program, sniffing it, then typing it in automatically when it tries to run?
Except that the watermark is usually in the middle of the screen, so you'd have to just remove that frame--noticeable.
And if they're using temporal watermarking--i.e. different frames are watermarked to designate different Academy members--then removing the frame is just as telling as leaving it in.
It CAN contain noticeable artifacts. In fact, lots of movies these days have noticeable artifacts. You might occasionally see something in the middle part of the screen that looks like several little burns or dark spots. Those are watermarks used to keep track of what theater a film is being shown in. If it's good enough for the public, it's good enough for the Academy, who they aren't even trying to make money off of. Remember, we're talking specially coded DVDs here. They could just insert the Academy member's name at the bottom of each frame on the DVD as a "watermark" so they would be able to tell who leaked it.
Fair enough. I hadn't really heard of the iRiver series. I was thinking of Neuros and Karma when I posted...although I'm even hesitant to inclue the Neuros since it (currently) requires a firmware flash to get Ogg support (Well, maybe not the Neuros 2.. is that one out yet?)
So you are free to shoot down my specific statement about only knowing of one or two OGG players, but you still can't argue with the statistics that there are considerably more players that play MP3 and do NOT play Ogg:)
Just like most of the world, people tend to cater to the majority. Most people do not use Ogg. Most people use MP3. Fact of life.
In fact, I suspect that there are a huge number of MP3 hardware players compared to Ogg. I only know of one or two dedicated hardware players capable of playing Ogg files. A few more that do WMA, and I could list probably twice as many MP3 players. Do the math. You want to sell to the most people, you give them the format that's used most often.
Speaking of trainers... Back when the original Game Genie (kinda like an Action Replay) was released, Nintendo moved to block it from being sold. The court case was based on patents--Nintendo claiming that Camerica (the creator of the GG) had violated their patents. The publicity was all about how cheating ruined games and meant that people would likely just rent games and beat them quickly with their GG instead of buying them and spending more time on them. Obviously, Nintendo lost, but it's just an interesting comparison.
Incidentally, I managed to get a GG from Canada back when this whole fiasco was going on. Spiffy product. Even learned a few words of French from getting this version:)
I wish I could mod the parent up, it's almost precisely what I would have said. Except to go one step further. Some people really enjoy ruining other people's fun. That, in and of itself, is fun for the griefer. By fixing bus and suing and removing cheating websites, Valve and their supporters are ruining the griefer's fun. Maybe cheaters should sue Valve on those grounds.
Oh wait, YOU'D NEVER FIND A LAWYER WHO WOULD REPRESENT YOU.
Slashdot Mirror
Absolutely right. But a subscription model isn't a license. Here's how it works.
1) You send 10 bucks to Sveasoft to get a login/password, enabling you to download the firmware.
2) You download the firmware. Before now, you could download the source for free as a subscriber, so we're going to pretend this is still the case. So you download the source, too.
3) You are legally entitled to redistribute both the binary and the source code. You can redistribute it either as is or with your own modifications. HOWEVER
4) If you exercise option 3, Sveasoft removes your login/password. Nothing in the GPL says they have to continue offering the product to you--the closest clause is that they have to offer the SOURCE code to anyone they've given BINARIES to for some period of time.
As far as I can see, until now, they've done nothing legally wrong. However I'm not sure how charging $50 for the source code fits in here...
In America, you almost never HAVE to show ID to purchase anything. It's just that the store has the option of not serving you if you don't follow their rules. One of their rules could be to record the purchaser of expensive merchandise in case the bills turn out to be bogus, stolen, etc.
Part of our freedoms include the freedom to refuse service to customers. As long as it's not the government taking away our rights, it's more acceptable (though not always acceptable--see declining service to minorities because you don't like them).
Yes. Attacking Iraq was a great way to show Afghanistan who's boss. Jolly good show, Mr. Bush!
Doesn't the RFC say that any message which is not delivered should bounce?
It's not hard to crack a poorly administrated system. What the hell was /usr/loca/bin doing world writeable?
Depends on how it's all implemented.
Do fair use copying rights actually say you can change the content (remove CSS, for example)?
Also, people are complaining about potentially having to use Windows to make legitimate backups. I don't see the problem. If you want to make a legitimate backup of anything, you've got to have the equipment to do so. In this case, that equipment is Windows. We're just now getting licensed Linux DVD players, so maybe at some point there will be a Linux solution for creating legitimate DVD backups--but it will likely be closed source and then people like you will bitch about that.
Close.
The discs should be readable in standalones, however the disc capacity is very slightly under the capacity of pressed DVDs. I think it comes out to 8.5gb as opposed to 9gb. So if a disc uses its entire capacity, you'll still have to use something like DVD Shrink, but you'll still see better quality. Most likely you'll be able to only shrink the extras and/or remove a sound track and have perfect quality for all the other audio and video.
Interesting, but not quite. Maxivista doesn't appear to actually be VGA-in at all--in uses a network connection and a device driver to simulate a SECOND monitor, but couldn't be used as a primary. Certainly their solution won't work under Linux as it's all done in software and is proprietary.
As the other poster points out, I want a laptop that I can take to any standard x86 PC, run a couple of wires from the laptop to the desktop, and have the display for the x86 PC appear on the laptop's LCD. Basically I want to be able to walk my laptop over to a headless PC and have local access to it.
Of course, it would almost require changes to the BIOS of the laptop to make something like this happen, but it sounds very close to what's going on here, only it's only TV-in instead of VGA-in.
All I want on a laptop is a VGA-input so I can use the LCD as the display for another computer. This is coming close to that, but it's still out of reach...
Defining genres is never easy, is it? "Remember RPGs before and after Baldur's Gate?" Yeah. I loved them. I also love Baldur's Gate. If you want me to go through the list....
Bard's Tale (series). Great areas to explore, statmonkey characters, and really one of the more fun games I've played, even to this day.
Ultima (1,2). Hardly RPGs, but amazing for their time. You create a character, you go through the quest, you beat the bad guy. Fun games, but maybe not in-depth enough to be called RPGs.
Ultima 3. Bridges the gap between the first two in the series and the real RPGs. Pretty close, but still quite lacking in the "role" department.
Ultima 4. If this isn't an RPG, I don't know what is. And it was fantastic. Finally the goal isn't just "run around and kill everything". In fact, if you did that, you would have a very difficult time finishing the game. This may, in fact, be the pinnacle of pre-Black Isle RPGs.
Rest of the Ultima series. Basically went downhill, though most of them were still quite fun.
Fallout 1 & 2. Again, definately an RPG, and quite fun. I miss games like it, where you take many, many different paths and really define your character however you want in order to finish the game.
Elder Scrolls 1 & 2. Quite in depth.. leads up to Morrowind, which is absolutely one of the best RPGs of today (not saying much, as there aren't many RPGs these days)
Wizardry series. More of a dungeon crawl than an RPG, but most people list it in this category.
Various TSR games. Pretty good RPGs usually..sometimes more adventure, but excellent.
Games after Black Isle (we'll even count games they put out):
BG series, Icewind Dale (not nearly as much of an RPG as BG), Neverwinter Nights, Pools of Radiance. Morrowind, Knights of the Old Republic.. Various and sundry MMORPGs. Hmm. I don't really necessarily see a pattern. In fact, I liked most of the older RPGs better than most of the newer ones (using Baldur's Gate as the dividing line). That's not to say I didn't enjoy Baldur's Gate. It was refreshing after a drought of RPGs. But I don't know for sure that I'd consider it to have revolutionized the genre or anything.
Yeah, but it's part of the game. Actually, that's why I like Counterstrike quite a bit. Death is permanent for that round...no respawning, so you have to be careful. Not necessarily always sneaky, just careful. Can't expect to just be able to respawn and run back to do some killing, and you know that the people you kill are going to stay down until the round ends. It makes camping more legitimate, in my opinion.
Hell yeah. I'd just advertise the hell out of it.
I seem to recall hearing that the manuals for these games were all black and white (in the US--color in Japan). That's not catering to the collector crowd, in my opinion.
I'd buy some of these if there was the option to play updated versions of the titles. Just for the originals, I'll pass.
It's only bait and switch if the sales item is not available in sufficient quantities. It's perfectly legitimate to advertise a $10 NIC and then, when the customer comes in and asks about it, explain that the $20 NIC is better. All you have to do is have the discounted item available and as visible in the store as the "switch".
Actually, I think the specifics of the practice vary from state to state, but that's how it is down here. Are there really some states that won't let stores upsale you on advertised items?
If there are multiple rebates on a product, one of them will require just a photocopy of the barcode. In this case, you can buy the item, send off only the rebate requiring a photocopied barcode, then return said item. Hell, you never have to take it out of the plastic....
Scummy, true. Completely dishonest. But it can get you 20 bucks or so completely for free, so people do it.
Zone Alarm, for example, does not prevent a stupid user from connecting to a website with IE, downloading a trojan, and executing it (see the round of compromised sites running IIS from a few weeks back). The combination of security flaws in IE and IIS allowed the software to be executed with no intervention from the user (all they did was go to an innocent web site). Similarly, the hole that Sasser-alikes use is similarly without user intervention, other than not having a firewall installed.
These exploits cause code to be executed without the user's knowledge, and thus is a perfectly plausible situation when my scenario could occur. For a very slightly less malicious example, any "free" software that is bundled with adware, spyware, or anything else that is discreetly installed without the user knowing it could do the same thing.
Yeah, but if you go to the article, there's nothing about "killer cans" in there at all. That was all Slashdot.
Kinda makes me sick--this is definately the most sensationalist headline Slashdot's ever posted... And here I thought the article would be about Killer Coke.
Out of curiousity, what stops the malware/spyware from clicking the "Yes, let this program access the Internet." button when it pops up? If you have to type a password, what stops it from waiting until you type it for another program, sniffing it, then typing it in automatically when it tries to run?
Except that the watermark is usually in the middle of the screen, so you'd have to just remove that frame--noticeable.
And if they're using temporal watermarking--i.e. different frames are watermarked to designate different Academy members--then removing the frame is just as telling as leaving it in.
It CAN contain noticeable artifacts. In fact, lots of movies these days have noticeable artifacts. You might occasionally see something in the middle part of the screen that looks like several little burns or dark spots. Those are watermarks used to keep track of what theater a film is being shown in. If it's good enough for the public, it's good enough for the Academy, who they aren't even trying to make money off of. Remember, we're talking specially coded DVDs here. They could just insert the Academy member's name at the bottom of each frame on the DVD as a "watermark" so they would be able to tell who leaked it.
Fair enough. I hadn't really heard of the iRiver series. I was thinking of Neuros and Karma when I posted...although I'm even hesitant to inclue the Neuros since it (currently) requires a firmware flash to get Ogg support (Well, maybe not the Neuros 2.. is that one out yet?)
:)
So you are free to shoot down my specific statement about only knowing of one or two OGG players, but you still can't argue with the statistics that there are considerably more players that play MP3 and do NOT play Ogg
Just like most of the world, people tend to cater to the majority. Most people do not use Ogg. Most people use MP3. Fact of life.
In fact, I suspect that there are a huge number of MP3 hardware players compared to Ogg. I only know of one or two dedicated hardware players capable of playing Ogg files. A few more that do WMA, and I could list probably twice as many MP3 players. Do the math. You want to sell to the most people, you give them the format that's used most often.
1) If Valve is shutting down cheat sites, then they are choosing to police your server for you.
2) As long as there are cheats that go beyond what you can do just with the console, this argument doesn't hold up as a rebuttal to mine.
Speaking of trainers...
:)
Back when the original Game Genie (kinda like an Action Replay) was released, Nintendo moved to block it from being sold. The court case was based on patents--Nintendo claiming that Camerica (the creator of the GG) had violated their patents. The publicity was all about how cheating ruined games and meant that people would likely just rent games and beat them quickly with their GG instead of buying them and spending more time on them. Obviously, Nintendo lost, but it's just an interesting comparison.
Incidentally, I managed to get a GG from Canada back when this whole fiasco was going on. Spiffy product. Even learned a few words of French from getting this version
I wish I could mod the parent up, it's almost precisely what I would have said.
Except to go one step further. Some people really enjoy ruining other people's fun. That, in and of itself, is fun for the griefer. By fixing bus and suing and removing cheating websites, Valve and their supporters are ruining the griefer's fun. Maybe cheaters should sue Valve on those grounds.
Oh wait, YOU'D NEVER FIND A LAWYER WHO WOULD REPRESENT YOU.
*:)*