The clear solution is this...if your patent is overturned...
- You lose the patent, pay the opposing attorneys, pay damages to the defendant, and pay the court a fine equal to 15% of your annual revenues (percentage may vary, but it should be proportional with regard to annual income to the fine you or I would pay for extortion)
- Your patent attorneys are disbarred. Specifically, any patent attorneys who billed for the patent work or who are retained by you or who have a contractual relationship with you are disbarred.
- The patent clerk who approved the patent, his supervisor, and his manager (ie two levels of management) are fired. They undergo a criminal background check for bribery from the patent applicant.
- The patent office pays for the court's costs.
If the current offenders don't feel the pain, there'll be no change.
No. Copyrights and patents are yours without regard to violations. You do not diminish your rights to your copyrighted or patented IP if you ignore violations. IANAL, but I have asked one (Hello, Wicked Werdna). There may be some details involving damages, but I can force you to quit violating my patent and copyright IP even if it's the last day they're valid and you've been violating them since day one.
On the other hand, you've got the damages, and there I have no idea how things work out.
Trademarks are another story, and there you're right on target.
Go google for the IP FAQ and read it. It's quite enlightening.
Quite frankly, religion (at least, religions based on the Hebrew scriptures) will not crumble even if life is discovered on other planets. Read Genesis 1:1-2 - "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void." There's a brief mention of the universe, and the focus immediately shifts to the earth. The universe at large is never mentioned again except to point out that God created it and that it will come to an end. Everything else that is mentioned is focused on the earth, the people on it, and the relationship of God to them. Is there life on other planets? Who knows? It doesn't say either way.
Let me propose the analogy of the elementary arithmetic textbook. It describes some properties of the real number system and describes how to calculate with it. Does it describe all the properties of the real number system? Does it detail other mathematical structures that have the same properties? Does it detail how to derive those properties from Peano's postulates, or how to use those properties to prove the consistency of all higher mathematics? No. There mathematical truth outside the elementary arithmetic text, but that does not invalidate the truth in the textbook. The focus for the elementary student is learning arithmetic; the other stuff makes a lot more sense when arithmetic is mastered.
Science is not antithetical to religion; it is merely irrelevant to it. Science is the study of the world you can see, touch, hear, and otherwise measure. It will be gone (from your perspective) when you die. God and the essence of you, on the other hand, are presumed by religion to last forever. So, what is the point in studying a system that will be obsolete in 100 years when you could be studying one that will be useful for eons?
Let's see...AOL gets to use media and browser software that anyone can download FOR FREE and agrees to provide FREE testing of Microsoft's operating system software. In return, AOL will make AIM work with MSN messenger (at least, that's the presumption.)
Microsoft didn't get everything they wanted; they did manage to get something for nothing.
That's 240 dollars vs 10 Rate of return, meet cash flow. Cash flow, meet rate of return.
As almost anyone who's ever run a business can attest, sometimes you have to do stupid stuff to maintain your cashflow. It does no good to have (figure a thousand players) $240,000 two years from now if you have to pay your developers $5,000 at the end of the month. In the latter case, you bash some heads, kick some butt, and release. Your developers will gripe, but not as much as if there were no paycheck.
If the cash stops flowing, the business dies, and it doesn't matter how beautiful it was or what high quality it was.
HOWEVER...I wouldn't mind if the FTC or some class action lawyers raised the stakes a bit. I'd rather see fewer quality-minded developers than the purveyors of crap we've got right now. I do not expect the market to encourage quality; it never has...not when a crap game = $$$ now.
if you had access to SCO source code through your employer, you are covered through their NDA
No. Unless I sign an NDA, I'm not bound by it. I am not in general bound by my employer's legal obligations. Period, carriage return, page eject, go to press. If my employer does not pay their utility bills, do I have to? If they don't pay their rent, do I have to? By the same logic, if my employer fails to safeguard a secret, I am not liable, even if their failure to guard the secret consists of revealing it to me.
Consider this hypothetical - my employer signs an NDA with SCO. I do not sign an NDA with either my employer or SCO. They show me the code. They are immediately in violation of their agreement, because I'm under no obligation to keep the code secret. However, I committed to nothing and am not not obligated to do anything.
PRECISELY. Their goal in this fight should be to destroy SCO and its leadershop. They win so overwhelmingly that the executives of of SCO are open to shareholder lawsuits. Executives considering legal action against Linux should fear the loss of both their corporate profits and their personal fortunes. In short, there should be a massive, disproportional, and overwhelming response. Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of law!
Check out fec.gov - Rep. Robert Wexler received contributions from the following PACs (among others):
AOL-Time-Warner
ASCAP MediaOne Micros oft Corporation Fox RIAA Sony Walt Disney
He's taken money from the very people that his legislative plans will benefit. Can any sane, rational person honestly believe that this is not a conflict of interest? This is not right, and it's symptomatic of the legalized bribery that is the core problem of the American political system.
Furthermore, the contributions from the PACs listed above don't constitute anywhere near the majority of his campaign funding. He's a democrat, and most of the PAC contributions are from labor unions. The larger part of his campaign expenditures were thus paid by organizations that purport to represent workers - sometimes also known as consumers. Despite this, he is acting as the lapdog of the content industry. As Mark Twain said, an honest politician is one that stays bought.
Wexler thus fails both the idealistic and pragmatic tests for honesty. I submit that he needs to be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail.
If it's not obvious from the definition, silica is silicon dioxide, SiO2. It is the primary ingredient for making glass. IConsider it as purified sand - all the impurities that color the SiO2 have been removed.
Actually...most students with an aptitude for mathematics have progressed beyond the most important discoveries of the Greeks by their junior year in high school.
Signed by (among others) the attorneys general of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and New Mexico. Where are the states that are sterotypically tech-savvy? Where's Washington? Where's California? Why are southern states taking the lead on this? I'd think it was just a regional US thing if it weren't for the international signatures on there. Is it easier to get international agreement than interstate agreement? Seriously, what gives here?
Gnostics believe that you can know. Agnostics believe you can't know. Diagnostics believe in a deeper knowledge of the divine through a better understanding of diesel mechanics.
Dimes will get you dollars that the "theoretical prediction" is EXACTLY what we're seeing. Otherwise, it's not much of a theory, is it, and there's not much mileage in telling your thesis advisors that they've been smoking crack for twenty years.
"But wait!" you say. "Perhaps the graduate student in question would come up with a NEW and IMPROVED theory!" Right. In which case, her "theoretical prediction" would be EXACTLY what we're seeing, right? =)
My three reactions to this: 1. Geez, some loser geek fanboy wannabe poser pretending he knows...oh, right, that's Wil Wheaton. 2. Too young? Too YOUNG? Too shy, maybe, but certainly not too young. 3. It's probably a lot easier to fill the skyline in now that the two long tetrads are gone =(
One of my favorite authors, Lois McMaster Bujold, plots her novels by imagining the worst possible thing she could do her characters. Then she does it. Some examples...
*** MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW***
*** MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW***
*** MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW***
She spends several books building up her protagonist's career...then destroys it. It was almost painful to read, because I could see him throwing away every chance at salvation. In another novel, she kills her protagonist, in the most tragic, pointless, wasteful way possible. In one of her novellas, she gives her protagonist a love interest. Who dies (pontlessly, tragically, etc.) because of the protagonist's failure to save her. Great stuff.
Guess you've never heard of money laundering. Not that that's what's taken place. Microsoft didn't bribe them or in any other way provide them with funds in a quid pro quo. Microsoft paid SCO a legally mandated settlement amount. It would have been illegal for Microsoft to do anything other than pay that money to SCO. It was absolutely not a bribe when they paid SCO.
The porn industry is selling information - you know, a string of ones and zeroes? The alcohol industry is selling death. While I agree that the pervasiveness of pornography on the internet is abhorrent, I find the very real physical damage done on a daily basis by alcohol is much worse. It has been argued that porn turns people into perverts. I'd suggest that more sexual crimes have been facilitated by alcohol (with its inhibition-lowering effects) than have ever been encouraged by pornography.
It's the queers. They're in it with the aliens. They're building carefully crafted packets to remote control the SETI client for gay martians. I swear...
Both agree there's an exploitable bug in SETI@home
Jamie states exploit code exists and is in the hands of people who are not guaranteed to be friendly. SETI states that there are difficulties in exploiting the bug and they know of no clients that have been compromised. Sounds to me like someone has written and distributed the code but has not actually been able to use it.
There is no contradiction. Jamie doesn't say clients have been exploited; SETI doesn't say there's no code. Granted, reading only Jamie's statement, I'd infer that the exploit has been used at least once. Given the context of SETI's statement, however, I'd reinterpret Jamie's.
Of course, you could choose to believe that one of them is lying. I have not enough experience with either of them to make such a choice and prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt.
It is only when we compete for scarce resources that we turn against each other.
This is not quite true. Cultures of scarcity rarely engage in warfare. If it takes one person one day to gather sufficient calories to sustain one person, there is not enough time or energy left to hit other people on the head. It is only when there is a surplus of necessary goods that a culture can afford to have leaders (priests, warlords, elders, whatever). It takes even more surplus to support an army.
I suspect you're off by a couple orders of magnitude. I support a few thousand NT users at a plant that manufactures parts for nuclear weapons. Draw your own conclusions.
Slashdot Mirror
The clear solution is this...if your patent is overturned...
- You lose the patent, pay the opposing attorneys, pay damages to the defendant, and pay the court a fine equal to 15% of your annual revenues (percentage may vary, but it should be proportional with regard to annual income to the fine you or I would pay for extortion)
- Your patent attorneys are disbarred. Specifically, any patent attorneys who billed for the patent work or who are retained by you or who have a contractual relationship with you are disbarred.
- The patent clerk who approved the patent, his supervisor, and his manager (ie two levels of management) are fired. They undergo a criminal background check for bribery from the patent applicant.
- The patent office pays for the court's costs.
If the current offenders don't feel the pain, there'll be no change.
No. Copyrights and patents are yours without regard to violations. You do not diminish your rights to your copyrighted or patented IP if you ignore violations. IANAL, but I have asked one (Hello, Wicked Werdna). There may be some details involving damages, but I can force you to quit violating my patent and copyright IP even if it's the last day they're valid and you've been violating them since day one.
On the other hand, you've got the damages, and there I have no idea how things work out.
Trademarks are another story, and there you're right on target.
Go google for the IP FAQ and read it. It's quite enlightening.
Quite frankly, religion (at least, religions based on the Hebrew scriptures) will not crumble even if life is discovered on other planets. Read Genesis 1:1-2 - "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void." There's a brief mention of the universe, and the focus immediately shifts to the earth. The universe at large is never mentioned again except to point out that God created it and that it will come to an end. Everything else that is mentioned is focused on the earth, the people on it, and the relationship of God to them. Is there life on other planets? Who knows? It doesn't say either way.
Let me propose the analogy of the elementary arithmetic textbook. It describes some properties of the real number system and describes how to calculate with it. Does it describe all the properties of the real number system? Does it detail other mathematical structures that have the same properties? Does it detail how to derive those properties from Peano's postulates, or how to use those properties to prove the consistency of all higher mathematics? No. There mathematical truth outside the elementary arithmetic text, but that does not invalidate the truth in the textbook. The focus for the elementary student is learning arithmetic; the other stuff makes a lot more sense when arithmetic is mastered.
Science is not antithetical to religion; it is merely irrelevant to it. Science is the study of the world you can see, touch, hear, and otherwise measure. It will be gone (from your perspective) when you die. God and the essence of you, on the other hand, are presumed by religion to last forever. So, what is the point in studying a system that will be obsolete in 100 years when you could be studying one that will be useful for eons?
Let's see...AOL gets to use media and browser software that anyone can download FOR FREE and agrees to provide FREE testing of Microsoft's operating system software. In return, AOL will make AIM work with MSN messenger (at least, that's the presumption.)
Microsoft didn't get everything they wanted; they did manage to get something for nothing.
That's 240 dollars vs 10
Rate of return, meet cash flow. Cash flow, meet rate of return.
As almost anyone who's ever run a business can attest, sometimes you have to do stupid stuff to maintain your cashflow. It does no good to have (figure a thousand players) $240,000 two years from now if you have to pay your developers $5,000 at the end of the month. In the latter case, you bash some heads, kick some butt, and release. Your developers will gripe, but not as much as if there were no paycheck.
If the cash stops flowing, the business dies, and it doesn't matter how beautiful it was or what high quality it was.
HOWEVER...I wouldn't mind if the FTC or some class action lawyers raised the stakes a bit. I'd rather see fewer quality-minded developers than the purveyors of crap we've got right now. I do not expect the market to encourage quality; it never has...not when a crap game = $$$ now.
if you had access to SCO source code through your employer, you are covered through their NDA
No. Unless I sign an NDA, I'm not bound by it. I am not in general bound by my employer's legal obligations. Period, carriage return, page eject, go to press. If my employer does not pay their utility bills, do I have to? If they don't pay their rent, do I have to? By the same logic, if my employer fails to safeguard a secret, I am not liable, even if their failure to guard the secret consists of revealing it to me.
Consider this hypothetical - my employer signs an NDA with SCO. I do not sign an NDA with either my employer or SCO. They show me the code. They are immediately in violation of their agreement, because I'm under no obligation to keep the code secret. However, I committed to nothing and am not not obligated to do anything.
You forgot the most important of all!
Memory loss --> writing
Dude, that's not SCA, that's Dagorhir. SCA don't pad their weapons.
PRECISELY. Their goal in this fight should be to destroy SCO and its leadershop. They win so overwhelmingly that the executives of of SCO are open to shareholder lawsuits. Executives considering legal action against Linux should fear the loss of both their corporate profits and their personal fortunes. In short, there should be a massive, disproportional, and overwhelming response. Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of law!
- AOL-Time-Warner
s oft Corporation
He's taken money from the very people that his legislative plans will benefit. Can any sane, rational person honestly believe that this is not a conflict of interest? This is not right, and it's symptomatic of the legalized bribery that is the core problem of the American political system.ASCAP
MediaOne
Micro
Fox
RIAA
Sony
Walt Disney
Furthermore, the contributions from the PACs listed above don't constitute anywhere near the majority of his campaign funding. He's a democrat, and most of the PAC contributions are from labor unions. The larger part of his campaign expenditures were thus paid by organizations that purport to represent workers - sometimes also known as consumers. Despite this, he is acting as the lapdog of the content industry. As Mark Twain said, an honest politician is one that stays bought.
Wexler thus fails both the idealistic and pragmatic tests for honesty. I submit that he needs to be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail.
Clear water is muddied.
The manager pauses.
A brief moment passes.
Small victory is made.
Excellent piece of verse. Print it up on a postcard with some the logos of some FUD masters or something and market it. I'd buy one.
If it's not obvious from the definition, silica is silicon dioxide, SiO2. It is the primary ingredient for making glass. IConsider it as purified sand - all the impurities that color the SiO2 have been removed.
Actually...most students with an aptitude for mathematics have progressed beyond the most important discoveries of the Greeks by their junior year in high school.
Signed by (among others) the attorneys general of Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and New Mexico. Where are the states that are sterotypically tech-savvy? Where's Washington? Where's California? Why are southern states taking the lead on this? I'd think it was just a regional US thing if it weren't for the international signatures on there. Is it easier to get international agreement than interstate agreement? Seriously, what gives here?
Gnostics believe that you can know. Agnostics believe you can't know. Diagnostics believe in a deeper knowledge of the divine through a better understanding of diesel mechanics.
Dimes will get you dollars that the "theoretical prediction" is EXACTLY what we're seeing. Otherwise, it's not much of a theory, is it, and there's not much mileage in telling your thesis advisors that they've been smoking crack for twenty years.
"But wait!" you say. "Perhaps the graduate student in question would come up with a NEW and IMPROVED theory!" Right. In which case, her "theoretical prediction" would be EXACTLY what we're seeing, right? =)
My three reactions to this:
1. Geez, some loser geek fanboy wannabe poser pretending he knows...oh, right, that's Wil Wheaton.
2. Too young? Too YOUNG? Too shy, maybe, but certainly not too young.
3. It's probably a lot easier to fill the skyline in now that the two long tetrads are gone =(
One of my favorite authors, Lois McMaster Bujold, plots her novels by imagining the worst possible thing she could do her characters. Then she does it. Some examples...
*** MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW***
*** MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW***
*** MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW***
She spends several books building up her protagonist's career...then destroys it. It was almost painful to read, because I could see him throwing away every chance at salvation. In another novel, she kills her protagonist, in the most tragic, pointless, wasteful way possible. In one of her novellas, she gives her protagonist a love interest. Who dies (pontlessly, tragically, etc.) because of the protagonist's failure to save her. Great stuff.
Guess you've never heard of money laundering. Not that that's what's taken place. Microsoft didn't bribe them or in any other way provide them with funds in a quid pro quo. Microsoft paid SCO a legally mandated settlement amount. It would have been illegal for Microsoft to do anything other than pay that money to SCO. It was absolutely not a bribe when they paid SCO.
The porn industry is selling information - you know, a string of ones and zeroes? The alcohol industry is selling death. While I agree that the pervasiveness of pornography on the internet is abhorrent, I find the very real physical damage done on a daily basis by alcohol is much worse. It has been argued that porn turns people into perverts. I'd suggest that more sexual crimes have been facilitated by alcohol (with its inhibition-lowering effects) than have ever been encouraged by pornography.
It's the queers. They're in it with the aliens. They're building carefully crafted packets to remote control the SETI client for gay martians. I swear...
Both agree there's an exploitable bug in SETI@home
Jamie states exploit code exists and is in the hands of people who are not guaranteed to be friendly. SETI states that there are difficulties in exploiting the bug and they know of no clients that have been compromised. Sounds to me like someone has written and distributed the code but has not actually been able to use it.
There is no contradiction. Jamie doesn't say clients have been exploited; SETI doesn't say there's no code. Granted, reading only Jamie's statement, I'd infer that the exploit has been used at least once. Given the context of SETI's statement, however, I'd reinterpret Jamie's.
Of course, you could choose to believe that one of them is lying. I have not enough experience with either of them to make such a choice and prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt.
To everyone who responded to the parent post:
YHBT.
YHL.
HAND.
It is only when we compete for scarce resources that we turn against each other.
This is not quite true. Cultures of scarcity rarely engage in warfare. If it takes one person one day to gather sufficient calories to sustain one person, there is not enough time or energy left to hit other people on the head. It is only when there is a surplus of necessary goods that a culture can afford to have leaders (priests, warlords, elders, whatever). It takes even more surplus to support an army.
only a few thousand customers
I suspect you're off by a couple orders of magnitude. I support a few thousand NT users at a plant that manufactures parts for nuclear weapons. Draw your own conclusions.