It's the implementations that scare the hell out of me. You have read all the whitepapers on Palladium, right?
I don't believe that disallowing people to run software that isn't explicitly certified to be 'clean' by any single entity is good.
And hey, look at it this way: the music corporations have already said publicly that they are moving to DRM. That means that if I want to purchase a compact disk to listen to in my Linux box... I'm out of luck. Unless, of course, I want to be in violation of the DMCA. I still haven't purchased a DVD player for my computer... for that very reason.
It is totally fair for manufacturers to want to do something such as DRM. Let them. I'm buying my stuff from someone else.
This is something that I already don't worry about. I'm using ATI cards and only using drivers from gatos.sf.net. I'm no ubergamer(I do most of that on a _gaming_ console), I'm no media hound either. I do work. Lots of it. I need scripts written, I need paperwork done. For that, I'm not in any need of some whizbang hardware that has singularly binary only drivers.
It is a valid question though, for those that have a thing for nVidia cards though. Yet another reason to have OSS/FreeSoftware.
I'm sorry, are we even talking about the same thing here?
I'm speaking of the Digital Restrictions Management systems that will be in place on Intel-based motherboards soon. I doubt that manufacturers of PPC motherboards will even bother to persue the DRM avenue, mainly because they will lack sufficient funding to support licensing the technology from whomsoever becomes the defacto DRM provider.
As for being pertinent to the conversation at hand, I am addressing the "What's the point" issue. My answer to what the point of buying hardware that is not as cheap as x86 hardware is the imminent DRM fiasco that we all, as users of computers, face. I'd like to still be able to use FreeSoftware, so... I'll use someone else's hardware if I need to.
It's coming, and in hardware form. These companies are small enough to give a rat's ass about what it's customers want. Next time I purchase hardware for myself... it's going to be PPC.
I've written several times to several legislators in my district. Only one has ever had the common decency to even acknowledge my concern. I don't know from what state you hail, but here in Georgia, a vote is paid for quite easily. Take a look at the recent redistricting. My own relative, who has served this county for years has redrawn her district to get out of the rural, agrigate community for which she has fought for and into the recently booming downtown district of Savannah. Don't you _dare_ tell me that legislators give a shit about the public.
Now, as for the DoJ, I'm not at all against their sticking to the law. As a matter of fact, I'm quite proud they are. However, last I checked, if a defendant has charges dropped, then the charges are dropped. This may not be the case with Federal law, however, so I'm not crying foul there one bit.
<sarcasm>
Oh, and BTW, they aren't out to put the evil company (aka Elcomsoft) out of business, they are trying to get their share of the money and let them slink back to the icy land from whence they came.
I've never, in the four or so years that I've read/. that this was a haven for objective journalism, much less journalism at all. I mean, we can't all be Fox News Network( wink, wink ).
I am capable of coming to my own conclusions, as are others. Reading of various opinions, facts and observing their validity is how I so such. I don't expect everyone to either be completely stoic, nor do I expect anyone to succum to my way of thinking.
You've come here, I'm guessing for a pretty long time. By now you should have decided whether or not this little haven of geekdom is worthy of your readership. If you haven't, give it another try. If you have, and you decided it's not to your liking, stop bitching and go somewhere else.
It'll be interesting to watch the fate of the DMCA unfurl, for sure. I'll be watching from as many sidelines as I can.
However, given that legislators only hear from those with money(or those who have been trodden upon by previously passed legislation), it is often percived by those in public offices that what they are doing is popular.
I'm hoping that after a few very public lashings, the people of this country will start paying attention, writing their elected officials, and attend public meetings.
With the past year's aggression and neglect toward liberty, citizens are getting their hair mussed and looking to the government to fix everything so they can go back to playing their X-boxes and eating their TV dinners. If the Federal government doesn't watch out, they may legislate themselves out of a job(and no, I'm not talking about elections).
we have laws is for intimidation. As much as I hate to say it, laws are not there to punish people but to deter particular situations which are popularly held as inappropiate. So, I suppose that the DMCA has been a success in that respect. However, the inability to actually enforce such a broad, generaized law makes the law useless in the long run.
Perhaps one day soon, congress will realize what a mammoth beast this thing is and kill it. Perhaps they will realize that they should make enforcable legislation. Nah, just pipe dreams.
I'm sorry, but it sounds to me like you either didn't read the article, or you just don't comprehend.
He's gone back and made amendments stating that code that would be thought of as 'the money maker' could be removed from the distributed code, remove constants and the likes as well. This would produce code that you could, for the most part, audit(or have audited) rather well. Basically speaking, this isn't just about the right thing as you put it. It is about responsibility.
It's like the saying goes, if you lived in a glass house, you'd behave better.
Of course, IANAL, but it would depend on the contract between the artist and the label. Unfortunatly, most artists just sign the dotted line and don't realize that they are henceforth, and until termination of said contract, slaves to the record company. This also means that what they make is not their own as long as they are making it under the label's distrobution channels.:S
Except in this case, the people with cows and cooks already paid for it with their tax dollars.
Perhaps the government should consider not taxing the life out of the country and making programs like this?
As well, once one of them has the information you're selling, what's to stop him/her from writing their own version of the information, basing it purely on the scientific facts contained within what you're selling, and giving it away to his/her friends for free?
I suppose you are one of the many that think that Linux will never make it in the commercial world because you can download it for free? Asside from that, I don't care what they do with it after they have paid me for it. That's all part of freedom. If they can, without any revenue stream, present it in a professional manner that would match mine... great! I'm going to continue to get good information and even sell it in practice. I doubt the fellows not getting paid could do that.
produce interesting new ideas and ways to physicall implement those ideas.
This I can certainly agree with. The thing is, not everyone really benefits from any of the information disseminated by the government. However, everyone is paying for it. That sounds an aweful lot like stealing to me. For instance, immagine the government paying millions of dollars to research a particular thing, then passed a law stating that it's use is prohibited. This happens all the time. A company can't just have you arrested for doing something to protect their revinue. They have to have a law passed. Government doesn't have to lobby. The just do.
private fiefdoms and state dictatorship
Greed is a powerful motivator. As a saying goes "The path to hell is paved with good intentions." It doesn't take long, as is evidenced by the socialization of the US since our good friend FDR took office, to ruin a good idea(the US government in this case). I really don't care what party anyone belongs to. I really don't care what invisible friend anyone subscribes to. You mess with my freedom, I'll kick you in the teeth.
They gotta eat too. I'd rather have my thick juicy steak than the stale bread they're handing out down the street. So, I'll gather up what knowledge I can, and charge people for it. They have cows. They have cooks. Sounds like to me we can make a good trade on that. But hey, the only system that works is socialism where the greedy elite can simply hoard everything tothemselves and not even allow for it to be charged for. Or hey, they can sell it to other countries while they are systematically exterminating their constituency. Mmmm... dictatorship! Is there nothing it can't do?
that the new state of lawmaking is to take away all responsibility from everyone and place it all squarely in the hands of the government. Once that responsibility has evaporated, along with it goes liberty, freedom, and the ability to choose to ignore the laws made by disconnected legislators.
coming from a company who installs spyware? I don't use p2p filesharing apps, but I've had to clean several machines of users who do. Although I fully understand the desire to rob people blind through their own stupidity; I'm in technical support for crying out loud, I just can't see how anything that comes from you guys(or any other company willing to put that sort of trash on a person's machine) could be truthful.
Does the settlement seem like a hastily created balancing act? By that, I mean keeping the creeping hand of government intrusion into business out, yet at the same time punishing a company which used questionable practices.
Note that I have no love for Microsoft, yet I do wish to keep the government out of business and more into the practice of governing.
As the settlement stands, it seems like an intrusion(even if quite useless) into Microsoft's business. Perhaps even with this settlement, the invisible hand will deal with them in time.
I'm not quite sure, but i do know that sprint's connection to uunet in atlanta was starting to get banged on pretty hard. Here's a link i use daily to check connections: link
If you're in the SE US you might have had a bit if difficulty getting through. Then again... they did just move.
Depends. According to the GURPS rules(basic book and psyonics), you can cause physical damage with a phantasmic blade. Therefore, I suppose murder by wire would be altogether possible!
I'm not real sure, but I think it was dselect that was so confusing. Essentialy, I would think I was selecting packages to install, but I was really deselecting them. Something along those lines. It was just a very confusing interface. I really do like ncurses though. It's quick and easy. I just have a problem with options that aren't very readily understandable. Who knows, I may try Debian out again someday. I know I love the idea of Debian. Then again, I love the idea of RedHat(and even Slack for that matter). I love the social contract that Debian works under. I'm just waiting for it to be usable(and in a manner that I don't have to install anything labeled 'testing' or 'unstable'). Cheers!
I was a Slack user for several years, but the Debian installer was just so darned screwy. I should be able to select a few categories of programs, then edit the contents _if_ i want to. I shouldn't have to pick from some two-thousand package names with terrible(if any) descriptions. I installed Deb once. The system didn't work very well, because I didn't install some of the things I was supposed to. Sure, I could have just started apt-getting. Problem was, I didn't know half of the stuff I needed. Now days, I might be able to cope. Then again, why would I want to cope when I can install Slack or RedHat?
On the lighter side, this sort of thing will make life harder on the consumer... right? Well, the way I see it, I'll never be out of a job. I'll be answering stupid questions all hours of the day, fixing some sort of DRM problems. Hey man, Windows is good for that, so why not (insert devilish bill in congress)?
Slashdot Mirror
Mmmmm, cheeze. And beeeer. And football...aaaaaaaaagggh.
Nice call, btw. You might be able to help me with a quick misfits trivia: is 138 a police code, and is it juvenile delinquents?
And here I was thinking it was the Plauge that makes your booty move!
I don't believe that disallowing people to run software that isn't explicitly certified to be 'clean' by any single entity is good.
And hey, look at it this way: the music corporations have already said publicly that they are moving to DRM. That means that if I want to purchase a compact disk to listen to in my Linux box... I'm out of luck. Unless, of course, I want to be in violation of the DMCA. I still haven't purchased a DVD player for my computer... for that very reason.
It is totally fair for manufacturers to want to do something such as DRM. Let them. I'm buying my stuff from someone else.
It is a valid question though, for those that have a thing for nVidia cards though. Yet another reason to have OSS/FreeSoftware.
I'm speaking of the Digital Restrictions Management systems that will be in place on Intel-based motherboards soon. I doubt that manufacturers of PPC motherboards will even bother to persue the DRM avenue, mainly because they will lack sufficient funding to support licensing the technology from whomsoever becomes the defacto DRM provider.
As for being pertinent to the conversation at hand, I am addressing the "What's the point" issue. My answer to what the point of buying hardware that is not as cheap as x86 hardware is the imminent DRM fiasco that we all, as users of computers, face. I'd like to still be able to use FreeSoftware, so... I'll use someone else's hardware if I need to.
It's coming, and in hardware form. These companies are small enough to give a rat's ass about what it's customers want. Next time I purchase hardware for myself... it's going to be PPC.
Now, as for the DoJ, I'm not at all against their sticking to the law. As a matter of fact, I'm quite proud they are. However, last I checked, if a defendant has charges dropped, then the charges are dropped. This may not be the case with Federal law, however, so I'm not crying foul there one bit.
Oh, and BTW, they aren't out to put the evil company (aka Elcomsoft) out of business, they are trying to get their share of the money and let them slink back to the icy land from whence they came.I am capable of coming to my own conclusions, as are others. Reading of various opinions, facts and observing their validity is how I so such. I don't expect everyone to either be completely stoic, nor do I expect anyone to succum to my way of thinking.
You've come here, I'm guessing for a pretty long time. By now you should have decided whether or not this little haven of geekdom is worthy of your readership. If you haven't, give it another try. If you have, and you decided it's not to your liking, stop bitching and go somewhere else.
It'll be interesting to watch the fate of the DMCA unfurl, for sure. I'll be watching from as many sidelines as I can.
However, given that legislators only hear from those with money(or those who have been trodden upon by previously passed legislation), it is often percived by those in public offices that what they are doing is popular.
I'm hoping that after a few very public lashings, the people of this country will start paying attention, writing their elected officials, and attend public meetings.
With the past year's aggression and neglect toward liberty, citizens are getting their hair mussed and looking to the government to fix everything so they can go back to playing their X-boxes and eating their TV dinners. If the Federal government doesn't watch out, they may legislate themselves out of a job(and no, I'm not talking about elections).
Perhaps one day soon, congress will realize what a mammoth beast this thing is and kill it. Perhaps they will realize that they should make enforcable legislation. Nah, just pipe dreams.
He's gone back and made amendments stating that code that would be thought of as 'the money maker' could be removed from the distributed code, remove constants and the likes as well. This would produce code that you could, for the most part, audit(or have audited) rather well. Basically speaking, this isn't just about the right thing as you put it. It is about responsibility.
It's like the saying goes, if you lived in a glass house, you'd behave better.
Break down the wall!
No kidding, it's really like that out there on "Post-Thanksgiving shopping hell" day
So, long story short... yes, you have to pay.
Perhaps the government should consider not taxing the life out of the country and making programs like this?
As well, once one of them has the information you're selling, what's to stop him/her from writing their own version of the information, basing it purely on the scientific facts contained within what you're selling, and giving it away to his/her friends for free?
I suppose you are one of the many that think that Linux will never make it in the commercial world because you can download it for free? Asside from that, I don't care what they do with it after they have paid me for it. That's all part of freedom. If they can, without any revenue stream, present it in a professional manner that would match mine... great! I'm going to continue to get good information and even sell it in practice. I doubt the fellows not getting paid could do that.
produce interesting new ideas and ways to physicall implement those ideas.
This I can certainly agree with. The thing is, not everyone really benefits from any of the information disseminated by the government. However, everyone is paying for it. That sounds an aweful lot like stealing to me. For instance, immagine the government paying millions of dollars to research a particular thing, then passed a law stating that it's use is prohibited. This happens all the time. A company can't just have you arrested for doing something to protect their revinue. They have to have a law passed. Government doesn't have to lobby. The just do.
private fiefdoms and state dictatorship
Greed is a powerful motivator. As a saying goes "The path to hell is paved with good intentions." It doesn't take long, as is evidenced by the socialization of the US since our good friend FDR took office, to ruin a good idea(the US government in this case). I really don't care what party anyone belongs to. I really don't care what invisible friend anyone subscribes to. You mess with my freedom, I'll kick you in the teeth.
They gotta eat too. I'd rather have my thick juicy steak than the stale bread they're handing out down the street. So, I'll gather up what knowledge I can, and charge people for it. They have cows. They have cooks. Sounds like to me we can make a good trade on that. But hey, the only system that works is socialism where the greedy elite can simply hoard everything tothemselves and not even allow for it to be charged for. Or hey, they can sell it to other countries while they are systematically exterminating their constituency. Mmmm... dictatorship! Is there nothing it can't do?
that the new state of lawmaking is to take away all responsibility from everyone and place it all squarely in the hands of the government. Once that responsibility has evaporated, along with it goes liberty, freedom, and the ability to choose to ignore the laws made by disconnected legislators.
coming from a company who installs spyware? I don't use p2p filesharing apps, but I've had to clean several machines of users who do. Although I fully understand the desire to rob people blind through their own stupidity; I'm in technical support for crying out loud, I just can't see how anything that comes from you guys(or any other company willing to put that sort of trash on a person's machine) could be truthful.
Note that I have no love for Microsoft, yet I do wish to keep the government out of business and more into the practice of governing.
As the settlement stands, it seems like an intrusion(even if quite useless) into Microsoft's business. Perhaps even with this settlement, the invisible hand will deal with them in time.
If you're in the SE US you might have had a bit if difficulty getting through. Then again... they did just move.
Depends. According to the GURPS rules(basic book and psyonics), you can cause physical damage with a phantasmic blade. Therefore, I suppose murder by wire would be altogether possible!
I'm not real sure, but I think it was dselect that was so confusing. Essentialy, I would think I was selecting packages to install, but I was really deselecting them. Something along those lines. It was just a very confusing interface. I really do like ncurses though. It's quick and easy. I just have a problem with options that aren't very readily understandable. Who knows, I may try Debian out again someday. I know I love the idea of Debian. Then again, I love the idea of RedHat(and even Slack for that matter). I love the social contract that Debian works under. I'm just waiting for it to be usable(and in a manner that I don't have to install anything labeled 'testing' or 'unstable'). Cheers!
I was a Slack user for several years, but the Debian installer was just so darned screwy. I should be able to select a few categories of programs, then edit the contents _if_ i want to. I shouldn't have to pick from some two-thousand package names with terrible(if any) descriptions. I installed Deb once. The system didn't work very well, because I didn't install some of the things I was supposed to. Sure, I could have just started apt-getting. Problem was, I didn't know half of the stuff I needed. Now days, I might be able to cope. Then again, why would I want to cope when I can install Slack or RedHat?
On the lighter side, this sort of thing will make life harder on the consumer... right? Well, the way I see it, I'll never be out of a job. I'll be answering stupid questions all hours of the day, fixing some sort of DRM problems. Hey man, Windows is good for that, so why not (insert devilish bill in congress)?