Step 1: Never register your software.
Step 2: "No, gentlemen, we have absolutely no Microsoft products on the premises. Therefore, we are not subject to the provisions of any licensing agreement that comes with such. If you'd like to try to prove otherwise, you'll need a subpoena (this being a civil and not a criminal matter), which we will naturally fight like hell."
Step 3: While fighting like hell as per Step 2, remove all Microsoft products and install free software products.
Can a vendor enforce any provision it feels like throwing into a software license? ("Vendor reserves the right to copy for its own use every document and file produced with its software.") Surely there must be some limit beyond which a court would say, "no, that's nuts."
Michael: A silly privacy overreaction, IMHO. I believe voter records are public in every state and county in the U.S., and they are routinely used by police, journalists, political bulk mailers, etc.
You know, this really pisses me off. In fact, I'm so enraged that I think I'll come over to your house and have a word with you in person. What county did you say you lived in again?
Hold on a minute, there are some cuties in sales and marketing!
Not only that, the sales and marketing types have expense accounts. When I used to work for a big company, I'd love for a salesperson to come begging to me for support on some product or other. Can you say "Steak and chardonney for lunch"?
Having a ZKS cookies isn't a sign that you used their service, just that you visited their site. If you're truely paranoid, delete it. ZKS isn't like anonymizer.com. The product installs on your computer and encrypts and obfuscates all internet comms. You can even go to sites that use cookies, but they can't be associated with your true identity.
Let's see, domain names have, what, 27 significant characters? If so, then names of form guinness*.com have 19 characters available. Just using the alphabetic and numeric ones, that would yield 10^46 combinations (and that's even ignoring names shorter than 27 chars). At $35 a crack, I think Guinness would run out of money before it could stomp all of them out. Might be fun if a bunch of SlashDotters got together and tried this.
(Anyone know if the original registrant gets his/her money back if the WIPO rules against them?)
1. Do NOT talk to law enforcement without your lawyer present. They are not your buddies, no matter how friendly they seem. They are trained to disarm you and get you talking, and you cannot help your case by doing so without the advice of counsel.
2. If you think the requirement for a warrant is any sort of obstacle, think again. Law enforcement develops relationships with tame judges, who will issue a warrant on virtually any pretext. You might later manage to get it and the evidence it turns up suppressed, but that isn't going to stop them from coming in and taking whatever they want.
3. For any sort of controversial access (or maybe all the time, if you don't mind the small delays it causes), use a service like ZeroKnowledge Freedom. It masks your identity completely, and allows email, chat, and web browsing.
4. Encrypt your entire hard drive (keep offsite backups, because you likely won't ever get the drive back if you refuse to hand over the key). You have no idea what might be lurking on there. I have an automated program that scans newsgroups for items of interest. If it accidentally downloaded kiddie porn, I might not know it until the Gestapo has my hard drive in its hands. If you ever sent a humorous email to a friend about cracking a system, or killing your girlfriend, it might end up used against you.
The author of the article is right, you can't overdo the paranoia.
I don't thinki techies are inherently indifferent. I think what you are seeing is due to the dominance of tech by younger people, who tend to be indifferent. I paid no attention to politics in my twenties, but as I got older, that changed. Now, I'm a politics junkie. My guess is that when you get married, have a family, and get some money in the bank, your outlook changes. You begin to realize that governmental action has an impact on your life, and you start paying attention. This is a generality, and I'm sure there are people who don't fit, but this is what I've observed.
I read the @HOme support horror stories and feel lucky. In 3 years, I've never had a problem with @Home tech service. Perhaps it's because I do my own investigation of a problem before I call them and have a ready answer for all of their standard questions (Is the cable modem plugged in? Is the PC light on? Is your computer connected directly to the cable modem? Can you ping the gateway? Are you able to get a television signal? etc). Once I get thru to a tech, it's a matter of minutes before we've figured out the problem or it's been referred to a higer-level tech support person or a pole-climber to investigate). The worst outage I ever had was a half-day when they had to isolate and replace an intermittent circuit card in a gateway.
In my experience, problems are almost invariably at my end. I'm a sophisticated user able to diagnose such things, but most users wouldn't have a clue. So if I were writing a manual for a tech support person at @Home, I'd also start with the assumption that the problem lies with the user until I could establish otherwise. Based on the probabilities, that's the way to bet.
We're considering the use of PC Cards using Fortezza for encrypting communications and files. The feature blurb:
The Rainbow Mykotronx FORTEZZA Crypto Card implements cutting-edge cryptographic security and authentication methods in a PCMCIA hardware token for Government and commercial applications.
Self-contained, standardized, and easily integrated, the Card provides the ultimate in portable security, together with on-board storage of user credentials, keys, and digital certificates.
Fully FORTEZZA compliant, the card incorporates the National Security Agency-certified CAPSTONE RISC-based cryptographic processor. It is the hardware crypto token chosen to secure the Defense Messaging System (DMS).
More info on the card we're looking at can be found here. (IANAF - I am not a flack).
I can see a lot of obstacles to becoming a dealer in bad RAM, including the hassles of having to test it and characterize that nature and extent of its problems. In order for someone to know whether the price and product were right, s/he'd have to have some detailed info about the defects, and it would vary from stick to stick. I'd think that the dealer would have to list each stick independently, along with the defect info. The customer would have to buy each stick as a unique entity, presumably. The logistics costs of doing all this and keeping the inventory records up to date would be quite costly. The economics of this are questionable, IMO, although given my parsimonious nature, I'd love to be proven wrong.
I have a hardware firewall on my cable modem access, and see periodic port scans from my cable modem provider's domain. Some may be other users, but I suspect that the company has scripts running that check on a regular basis. Now, one solution might be to block that domain and let all others thru, but I'm guessing that they'll wise up to that sooner or later.
Careful. A lot of (all?) high speed providers have prohibitions against running 'servers'. Anything that will accept an incoming socket connection qualifies, in their eyes, and they'll scan for them. You might get this beautiful setup running and then get a nasty note from your provider telling you to take it down, 'or else'. Some providers will let you run servers if you sign up for their super-duper service (at considerably greater cost, of course). Check your provider's policies before you invest much time in this.
Luckily, I was at work, and my roomie respects my privacy
The census workers were instructed that, in the case of particularly recalcitrant types such as yourself, they were to go to the neighbors, public records, etc. in order to answer as many questions as possible. It may still be that some of your data got in there.
Not only that, but if a government employee does access both, and perhaps your census data in addition, there will be a record of these accesses. There is a small hope that such would discourage abuses, or at least provide an audit trail if and when such abuses occur.
Ever see the postings to Usenet from university accounts of people who forgot to logoff their terminals? I also remember the time a collegue of mine who used to work for an airline had to find out the flight number that a particular person was on and simply walked up to vacant terminals at the airport until he found one that was still logged on. To anyone looking at him funny, he simply said he was checking his email (a capability of airline reservations systems). Since he looked like he knew what he was doing, nobody questioned him. That whole episode was scary from many aspects, since he used the info obtained to go to the departing flight, crawl into the luggage hold and switch suitcases with the guy, who had accidentally picked his up on the shuttle bus. No one stopped him. Amazing.
Get a Plextor Plexwriter 12/10/32A. With its new Burn-Proof technology (essentially it stops the write if it runs out of data, then resumes), you'll never make another coaster. I've had one for months, and I can do anything on the computer that I want without messing up a write. You can even do a CD-to-CD with no problemos. Love this product (and no, I have no financial interest in the company or product.)
On the contrary, I install dozens of commercial packages. True, the licensing is not on the box itself, but on the inner packaging. It's still not necessary to break the disk seal before reading the license. If you open the box, you can still return it (at least at the stores I frequent, like Fry's).
I don't know about you, but all of the software packages I can recall installing either have the license on a separate sheet of paper that's accessible without breaking a seal, or it's printed on the envelope that the software is sealed in.
As far as making licenses comprehensible, why bother? Almost no one reads them anyway. I always blow by software license agreements (though I sometimes wonder whether someone has embedded some verbiage like "we reserve the right to send all of your system information back to our computers and sell it to the highest bidder.")
I note from his bio that he's an academic. I've read that it's very difficult to get taken seriously in Germany unless you're a professor. I.E. you'd never hear of a German version of, say, Linus Torvalds, being honored in this way. Anyone care to talk about whether this is true, and if so, what impact it does/doesn't have on German innovation and inventiveness?
I've actually given this some thought. I'd personally like to have an embedded camcorder which would be a sort of 'in-flight recorder'. If a cop brutalized me or a superior gave me an illegal order, it would be great to have an irrefutable record of it. On the other hand, would I want the risk of having the cops demand the recording because I might be a witness or a participant in a crime? Might criminals blow my head off with a shotgun to destroy the recorder I carry? Lots of implications in it.
Right now, I turn off my cell phone when its not in use, just because I don't like the fact that I could theoretically be tracked using its signal. (Never mind why I'm paranoid. I just am ok?) What happens when I want services that require that the phone not only be on, but for a certainty report its location to a service where it will definitely be logged? Do I really want my every movement to be recorded for all time? Beyond becoming a Borg-like being, the side-effects of this technology are going to involve some tradeoffs in terms of privacy and liberties. It will be interesting to see where all this takes us.
Kinda retarded if you ask me... are we that addicted to technology?
I remember back in 1970, I made the remark to someone that I'd sure like to have a computer in my home. The response was, "Whatever for? What could you possibly do with it?" I have the feeling that this is one of those areas where we can't even imagine how it will evolve over time. Who really needs a dishwasher? Who really needs an MP3 player? It's funny how something optional soon becomes a necessity, even to the point where you're considered out of step with the culture if you don't have it.
Slashdot Mirror
Step 1: Never register your software. Step 2: "No, gentlemen, we have absolutely no Microsoft products on the premises. Therefore, we are not subject to the provisions of any licensing agreement that comes with such. If you'd like to try to prove otherwise, you'll need a subpoena (this being a civil and not a criminal matter), which we will naturally fight like hell." Step 3: While fighting like hell as per Step 2, remove all Microsoft products and install free software products.
Can a vendor enforce any provision it feels like throwing into a software license? ("Vendor reserves the right to copy for its own use every document and file produced with its software.") Surely there must be some limit beyond which a court would say, "no, that's nuts."
You know, this really pisses me off. In fact, I'm so enraged that I think I'll come over to your house and have a word with you in person. What county did you say you lived in again?
Not only that, the sales and marketing types have expense accounts. When I used to work for a big company, I'd love for a salesperson to come begging to me for support on some product or other. Can you say "Steak and chardonney for lunch"?
Having a ZKS cookies isn't a sign that you used their service, just that you visited their site. If you're truely paranoid, delete it. ZKS isn't like anonymizer.com. The product installs on your computer and encrypts and obfuscates all internet comms. You can even go to sites that use cookies, but they can't be associated with your true identity.
(Anyone know if the original registrant gets his/her money back if the WIPO rules against them?)
Is there any appeal path available after WIPO decisions like this? They appear to be becoming increasingly arbitrary in their rulings.
2. If you think the requirement for a warrant is any sort of obstacle, think again. Law enforcement develops relationships with tame judges, who will issue a warrant on virtually any pretext. You might later manage to get it and the evidence it turns up suppressed, but that isn't going to stop them from coming in and taking whatever they want.
3. For any sort of controversial access (or maybe all the time, if you don't mind the small delays it causes), use a service like ZeroKnowledge Freedom. It masks your identity completely, and allows email, chat, and web browsing.
4. Encrypt your entire hard drive (keep offsite backups, because you likely won't ever get the drive back if you refuse to hand over the key). You have no idea what might be lurking on there. I have an automated program that scans newsgroups for items of interest. If it accidentally downloaded kiddie porn, I might not know it until the Gestapo has my hard drive in its hands. If you ever sent a humorous email to a friend about cracking a system, or killing your girlfriend, it might end up used against you.
The author of the article is right, you can't overdo the paranoia.
I don't thinki techies are inherently indifferent. I think what you are seeing is due to the dominance of tech by younger people, who tend to be indifferent. I paid no attention to politics in my twenties, but as I got older, that changed. Now, I'm a politics junkie. My guess is that when you get married, have a family, and get some money in the bank, your outlook changes. You begin to realize that governmental action has an impact on your life, and you start paying attention. This is a generality, and I'm sure there are people who don't fit, but this is what I've observed.
In my experience, problems are almost invariably at my end. I'm a sophisticated user able to diagnose such things, but most users wouldn't have a clue. So if I were writing a manual for a tech support person at @Home, I'd also start with the assumption that the problem lies with the user until I could establish otherwise. Based on the probabilities, that's the way to bet.
The Rainbow Mykotronx FORTEZZA Crypto Card implements cutting-edge cryptographic security and authentication methods in a PCMCIA hardware token for Government and commercial applications. Self-contained, standardized, and easily integrated, the Card provides the ultimate in portable security, together with on-board storage of user credentials, keys, and digital certificates.
Fully FORTEZZA compliant, the card incorporates the National Security Agency-certified CAPSTONE RISC-based cryptographic processor. It is the hardware crypto token chosen to secure the Defense Messaging System (DMS).
More info on the card we're looking at can be found here. (IANAF - I am not a flack).
I can see a lot of obstacles to becoming a dealer in bad RAM, including the hassles of having to test it and characterize that nature and extent of its problems. In order for someone to know whether the price and product were right, s/he'd have to have some detailed info about the defects, and it would vary from stick to stick. I'd think that the dealer would have to list each stick independently, along with the defect info. The customer would have to buy each stick as a unique entity, presumably. The logistics costs of doing all this and keeping the inventory records up to date would be quite costly. The economics of this are questionable, IMO, although given my parsimonious nature, I'd love to be proven wrong.
I have a hardware firewall on my cable modem access, and see periodic port scans from my cable modem provider's domain. Some may be other users, but I suspect that the company has scripts running that check on a regular basis. Now, one solution might be to block that domain and let all others thru, but I'm guessing that they'll wise up to that sooner or later.
Careful. A lot of (all?) high speed providers have prohibitions against running 'servers'. Anything that will accept an incoming socket connection qualifies, in their eyes, and they'll scan for them. You might get this beautiful setup running and then get a nasty note from your provider telling you to take it down, 'or else'. Some providers will let you run servers if you sign up for their super-duper service (at considerably greater cost, of course). Check your provider's policies before you invest much time in this.
The census workers were instructed that, in the case of particularly recalcitrant types such as yourself, they were to go to the neighbors, public records, etc. in order to answer as many questions as possible. It may still be that some of your data got in there.
Ever see the postings to Usenet from university accounts of people who forgot to logoff their terminals? I also remember the time a collegue of mine who used to work for an airline had to find out the flight number that a particular person was on and simply walked up to vacant terminals at the airport until he found one that was still logged on. To anyone looking at him funny, he simply said he was checking his email (a capability of airline reservations systems). Since he looked like he knew what he was doing, nobody questioned him. That whole episode was scary from many aspects, since he used the info obtained to go to the departing flight, crawl into the luggage hold and switch suitcases with the guy, who had accidentally picked his up on the shuttle bus. No one stopped him. Amazing.
Get a Plextor Plexwriter 12/10/32A. With its new Burn-Proof technology (essentially it stops the write if it runs out of data, then resumes), you'll never make another coaster. I've had one for months, and I can do anything on the computer that I want without messing up a write. You can even do a CD-to-CD with no problemos. Love this product (and no, I have no financial interest in the company or product.)
On the contrary, I install dozens of commercial packages. True, the licensing is not on the box itself, but on the inner packaging. It's still not necessary to break the disk seal before reading the license. If you open the box, you can still return it (at least at the stores I frequent, like Fry's).
Mine sleeps with the fishes. Don't tell me somebody actually installed that software?
I don't know about you, but all of the software packages I can recall installing either have the license on a separate sheet of paper that's accessible without breaking a seal, or it's printed on the envelope that the software is sealed in.
As far as making licenses comprehensible, why bother? Almost no one reads them anyway. I always blow by software license agreements (though I sometimes wonder whether someone has embedded some verbiage like "we reserve the right to send all of your system information back to our computers and sell it to the highest bidder.")
Well hey, there's the perfect solution for the RIAA. They buy up the patent and refuse to license it. Problem solved. Next!
I note from his bio that he's an academic. I've read that it's very difficult to get taken seriously in Germany unless you're a professor. I.E. you'd never hear of a German version of, say, Linus Torvalds, being honored in this way. Anyone care to talk about whether this is true, and if so, what impact it does/doesn't have on German innovation and inventiveness?
Right now, I turn off my cell phone when its not in use, just because I don't like the fact that I could theoretically be tracked using its signal. (Never mind why I'm paranoid. I just am ok?) What happens when I want services that require that the phone not only be on, but for a certainty report its location to a service where it will definitely be logged? Do I really want my every movement to be recorded for all time? Beyond becoming a Borg-like being, the side-effects of this technology are going to involve some tradeoffs in terms of privacy and liberties. It will be interesting to see where all this takes us.
I remember back in 1970, I made the remark to someone that I'd sure like to have a computer in my home. The response was, "Whatever for? What could you possibly do with it?" I have the feeling that this is one of those areas where we can't even imagine how it will evolve over time. Who really needs a dishwasher? Who really needs an MP3 player? It's funny how something optional soon becomes a necessity, even to the point where you're considered out of step with the culture if you don't have it.