I think you're being affected by the same kind of syndrome as those Russians...
Here in Europe we don't really consider America to be the Land of the Free anymore. To begin with, it's a pain in the ass to enter that country, and they take your fingerprints when they let you enter. Then you loose all your rights as soon as someone claims you might be a terrorist. It's a country were Freedom of Speech has been replaced with Political Correctness. Regarding elections, their campaigns are so expensive that you have to befriend someone with deep pockets if you want to stand a chance (and that comes with some strings attached). Consequently, their foreign policy is more accurately described as "we need oil" than as "let's give those people freedom".
Sure it's not as bad a a proper dictatorship, but maybe you should be worried about those issues, and not just blindly support your country. The original ideals were great, but they have been kind of subverted along the way...
The problem is not the new model in itself. If you consider price discrimination to be a good thing, then the new model is indeed a win-win. (Actually, if you account for the fact that Intel has to put some extra silicon in the chip to support this new model, it's not going to be a definite win-win, but let's forget about that)
The problem is that in order for this new model to work, you have to resign you property rights on the piece of harware that you buy. You will no longer be allowed to do whatever you want with it. You will only have a license to use it in some restricted way. The software industry and the entertainment industry went down that road some time ago, and many of us feel it as a bad thing. We don't want the same to happen with our hardware.
but the manufacturers also have the "right" to put encryption on media.
Cool. We have the right to try to break it, and to succeed.
Actually, thanks to the DMCA, you no longer have the right to break it.
You can replace the DMCA by the EUCD or similar legislation depending on where you leave, and the ACTA is going to solve this issue in a consistent way.
I think their plan is to release a standard protocol as well as one implementation of the protocol, and I certainly hope that the protocol will be implemented by other people.
But a standardized protocol is not everything. We've had a standardized protocol for instant messaging for some time (Jabber aka XMPP), but there are still many incompatible proprietary protocols out there (MSN, AIM, Skype,...). Jabber is gaining some momentum because Google is using it for Google Talk, and the same thing might happen with Diaspora, but I don't think Facebook will switch to an open social networking protocol anytime soon. (However, they did move to Jabber for IM -- but their server is not connected to the rest of the Jabebr world.)
Wow, so your friend is l33t enough to run linux but can't read the box, google beforehand, or google afterwards? I personally know people who have had iPods sync easily through linux. Maybe the problem is more with your friend? I know the Ubuntu-era has attracted new types of users to Linux, but that seems ludicrous.
The point is that it works with some iPod models, but not all of them. Because Apple likes to break compatibility from time to time.
I'm not asking for Apple to work on Linux support, I agree that it is quite sensible for them to not spend time on that. But the problem is they actively break compatibility. Honestly, when you buy a music player in 2010, with a USB plug, you expect it to run on any OS because there are more than enough open standards to support music sync. The boxes rarely mention Linux, but hopefully I can still buy a usb key, a hard-drive or a monitor without checking for Linux support.
If you look at sales of the Humble Indie Bundle, you can see that about one quarter of the money came from Linux gamers. I don't know how many of these gamers feel stongly enough about DRM that they wouldn't have buy the game if there was DRM on it, but I think that making a DRM system that works reliably on an Open Source system is really hard. So they would probably not have made a Linux version if they have used DRM, and they would have lost 25% of their revenue.
Note that those figures are for an Indie game, and it will probably be quite different for Half-Life 7.
The iPod and iPad products. They often introduce people to Apple, and again, at the end of the day when the dust settles, these are superb products and they naturally predispose people - students, anyone - to think positively of Apple.
They are also highly not interoperable. (Every single aspect of it: the App Store, the chargers, iTunes only running on OSX and Windows, DRMs, not supporting open formats,...)
A friend of mine bought an iPod because it looked cool, and after fighting to transfer song under Linux, sworn to never buy Apple again...
If you plan to make any kind of money (even through advertising) with your app, then you probably need a professional license for H264 which is quite expensive. And even if you don't make money, you're supposed to use a licensed encoder, meaning not x264.
Welcome to the wonderful world of software patents.
The main reason for this is that the vast majority of Windows programs are Closed Source, while the vast majority of Linux programs are Open Source. When a change in the kernel breaks an Open Source program, it's no big deal because any one can fix the program. With a closed Source program, you have to wait for the author to fix the program, assuming that he still cares about the program...
if you use Flash, pretty much everyone (except those subject to Steve Jobs' Dictatorshic) can view your video
As a matter of fact, Adobe's dictatorship also excludes a good bunch of people. Like the weirdos who use a 64 bit Linux system (still no official flash player for us, after all those years). Or those using WhateverBSD. Or Linux users of strange hardware, like PowerPC machines. And I'm not even talking about the importance of freedom here (real freedom, not the one Apple and Adobe are fighting over).
On the other hand, there seem to be a good momentum in favor of VP8, it will be supported by every significant browser, excepted the Apple ones. And being free means everyone can add support for if they want to.
Of course MPEG-LA is threatening to sue, what else can they do? But a fair number of companies have announced future support for VP8, and some of them are already using it. They probably have good reasons to believe it will turn out fine for them.
Software patents officially do not exist in Europe, they are quite explicitly ruled out.
However, this does not prevent people from applying for such patents, and the patent office being what it is, those patents are of course granted. (You can even patent the wheel in some countries...).
So if you implement something that is covered by software patents, you will probably have to go to court at some point. Obviously, if you don't have the money to afford a good lawyer, you're screwed. If you're rich and lucky enough, the court applies the "no software-patent" rule and the patent is deemed invalid. By if the patent owner succeeds in pretending that's it's not only a software issue, and that it has some technical effect, you're screwed.
So it's definitely not as easy as "there are no software patents in Europe". And even if it was, obviously invalid patents can still do do a lot of harm (just have a look at what SCO is doing...).
Slashdot Mirror
The best part of the law is that you can only defend yourself after they cut your connection...
I think you're being affected by the same kind of syndrome as those Russians...
Here in Europe we don't really consider America to be the Land of the Free anymore. To begin with, it's a pain in the ass to enter that country, and they take your fingerprints when they let you enter. Then you loose all your rights as soon as someone claims you might be a terrorist. It's a country were Freedom of Speech has been replaced with Political Correctness. Regarding elections, their campaigns are so expensive that you have to befriend someone with deep pockets if you want to stand a chance (and that comes with some strings attached). Consequently, their foreign policy is more accurately described as "we need oil" than as "let's give those people freedom".
Sure it's not as bad a a proper dictatorship, but maybe you should be worried about those issues, and not just blindly support your country. The original ideals were great, but they have been kind of subverted along the way...
If they try to force everybody to use buy a new TV, a new player, and a set of new discs, most people will just download a pirated copy...
Perhaps it's better to hide the data in another type of file? Perhaps using the lsb of a bitmap file?
The LSBs of a bitmap file do not usually have full entropy, so if you hide encrypted data in it, it's still possible to detect it.
The problem is not the new model in itself. If you consider price discrimination to be a good thing, then the new model is indeed a win-win. (Actually, if you account for the fact that Intel has to put some extra silicon in the chip to support this new model, it's not going to be a definite win-win, but let's forget about that)
The problem is that in order for this new model to work, you have to resign you property rights on the piece of harware that you buy. You will no longer be allowed to do whatever you want with it. You will only have a license to use it in some restricted way. The software industry and the entertainment industry went down that road some time ago, and many of us feel it as a bad thing. We don't want the same to happen with our hardware.
Yeah, because getting tourists to an isolated island does not generate any CO2, so it's great way to fight global warming...
but the manufacturers also have the "right" to put encryption on media.
Cool. We have the right to try to break it, and to succeed.
Actually, thanks to the DMCA, you no longer have the right to break it.
You can replace the DMCA by the EUCD or similar legislation depending on where you leave, and the ACTA is going to solve this issue in a consistent way.
I think their plan is to release a standard protocol as well as one implementation of the protocol, and I certainly hope that the protocol will be implemented by other people.
But a standardized protocol is not everything. We've had a standardized protocol for instant messaging for some time (Jabber aka XMPP), but there are still many incompatible proprietary protocols out there (MSN, AIM, Skype, ...). Jabber is gaining some momentum because Google is using it for Google Talk, and the same thing might happen with Diaspora, but I don't think Facebook will switch to an open social networking protocol anytime soon. (However, they did move to Jabber for IM -- but their server is not connected to the rest of the Jabebr world.)
It's not only pedantry, it's just common sense.
Suggesting that ImageMagick is part of "Linux" is quite stupid, they have Windows and MacOS binary available for download...
Wow, so your friend is l33t enough to run linux but can't read the box, google beforehand, or google afterwards? I personally know people who have had iPods sync easily through linux. Maybe the problem is more with your friend? I know the Ubuntu-era has attracted new types of users to Linux, but that seems ludicrous.
The point is that it works with some iPod models, but not all of them. Because Apple likes to break compatibility from time to time.
I'm not asking for Apple to work on Linux support, I agree that it is quite sensible for them to not spend time on that. But the problem is they actively break compatibility. Honestly, when you buy a music player in 2010, with a USB plug, you expect it to run on any OS because there are more than enough open standards to support music sync. The boxes rarely mention Linux, but hopefully I can still buy a usb key, a hard-drive or a monitor without checking for Linux support.
If you look at sales of the Humble Indie Bundle, you can see that about one quarter of the money came from Linux gamers. I don't know how many of these gamers feel stongly enough about DRM that they wouldn't have buy the game if there was DRM on it, but I think that making a DRM system that works reliably on an Open Source system is really hard. So they would probably not have made a Linux version if they have used DRM, and they would have lost 25% of their revenue.
Note that those figures are for an Indie game, and it will probably be quite different for Half-Life 7.
The iPod and iPad products. They often introduce people to Apple, and again, at the end of the day when the dust settles, these are superb products and they naturally predispose people - students, anyone - to think positively of Apple.
They are also highly not interoperable. (Every single aspect of it: the App Store, the chargers, iTunes only running on OSX and Windows, DRMs, not supporting open formats, ...)
A friend of mine bought an iPod because it looked cool, and after fighting to transfer song under Linux, sworn to never buy Apple again...
If you plan to make any kind of money (even through advertising) with your app, then you probably need a professional license for H264 which is quite expensive. And even if you don't make money, you're supposed to use a licensed encoder, meaning not x264.
Welcome to the wonderful world of software patents.
The main reason for this is that the vast majority of Windows programs are Closed Source, while the vast majority of Linux programs are Open Source. When a change in the kernel breaks an Open Source program, it's no big deal because any one can fix the program. With a closed Source program, you have to wait for the author to fix the program, assuming that he still cares about the program...
Nope. The city of Paris is actually providing WiFi connexion in several parks...
Maybe they collect WiFi data on purpose for their geolocation service?
The summary is completely messed up.
Quantum teleportation doesn't have anything to do with quantum communication.
if you use Flash, pretty much everyone (except those subject to Steve Jobs' Dictatorshic) can view your video
As a matter of fact, Adobe's dictatorship also excludes a good bunch of people. Like the weirdos who use a 64 bit Linux system (still no official flash player for us, after all those years). Or those using WhateverBSD. Or Linux users of strange hardware, like PowerPC machines. And I'm not even talking about the importance of freedom here (real freedom, not the one Apple and Adobe are fighting over).
On the other hand, there seem to be a good momentum in favor of VP8, it will be supported by every significant browser, excepted the Apple ones. And being free means everyone can add support for if they want to.
Of course MPEG-LA is threatening to sue, what else can they do? But a fair number of companies have announced future support for VP8, and some of them are already using it. They probably have good reasons to believe it will turn out fine for them.
Except that there isn't really any benefit to using SI over Imperial measurements.
Yes there is.
Can you tell me how many cubic inches are in a cubic mile without asking Google?
The main point of the SI measurements is not to use different units like the meter and the kilogram it's to use a decimal system.
No, that's not what patent protect. That would be protected by copyright, which an entirely different beast.
Software patents officially do not exist in Europe, they are quite explicitly ruled out.
However, this does not prevent people from applying for such patents, and the patent office being what it is, those patents are of course granted. (You can even patent the wheel in some countries...).
So if you implement something that is covered by software patents, you will probably have to go to court at some point. Obviously, if you don't have the money to afford a good lawyer, you're screwed. If you're rich and lucky enough, the court applies the "no software-patent" rule and the patent is deemed invalid. By if the patent owner succeeds in pretending that's it's not only a software issue, and that it has some technical effect, you're screwed.
So it's definitely not as easy as "there are no software patents in Europe". And even if it was, obviously invalid patents can still do do a lot of harm (just have a look at what SCO is doing...).