You're not making life easier for the filesharing crowd, you know. You really ought to cut down on the caffeine and slow down the pace of your postings in these threads.
Playing music at a private non-commercial party is no more illegal than having some friends over to watch a prerecorded movie. Those are both private performances that are allowed because copyright law only forbids public performances.
And on that score, public performances, at least for music, are covered under a compulsory license. Which means that any song ever produced, I have the right to perform it in public without any permission from the copyright holder, as long as I pay the compulsory license fee. Which, BTW, is paid to the groups ASCAP and BMI, not the RIAA.
As for online sharing, you need to be more specific with examples of the type of abuse you're concerned about for anyone to have a reasonable discussion of same. Obviously there are a number of places we might look at where the copyright law has gone beyond its initial intent and instead granted a sort of homestead-style property right to ideas. Obviously the ever-expanding scope and strength of copyright erodes our natural rights in our property and to free speech, but do you really expect to convince anyone of that with hyperbole and misstatements of fact?
Dear Dimwit #654864, using a lot of capital letters does not make your argument better. Also, red-baiting is so 1950's. Would you get over it already? Copyright is governmental interference in the free market-- much closer to Communism than any filesharing. It says so right there in the U.S. Constitution: "to promote". That's the Founding Fathers saying, "the free market is insufficient in this case, so let's legislate in favor of authors/inventors/publishers/whatever."
That's nice, but if it doesn't work without trampling Fair Use, then that business model needs to be re-examined. Copyright isn't a natural right, it is a bargain struck between the public and the authors and publishers.
Fair use laws might allow you to make copies of magazine content which you have purchased for your own personal use, but they don't allow you to make copies of magazine (or other) content which you have not purchased, except maybe for the purpose of critique.
That is an inaccurate statement. First, if you read the four clauses of the Fair Use exception code, there is nothing in there to the effect that the original work must have been purchased, or even obtained legitimately. Second, if I have to purchase something in order to copy it, this would invalidate Fair Use when done at the library. Imagine writing a research paper and having to buy a copy of every source you quoted. Ridiculous, right?
As to the cost of doing business (with respect to shrinkwrapping, etc), I should think that it does raise the costs. That is unfortunate. But it is the easiest practical solution-- as cameras get smaller and better how will you even know if someone is using one? Also, as you point out, you just can't watch everyone all the time.
And FWIW, as I understand it, many of the cell phones available today (especially in Japan) have cameras. And the phone itself is not expensive, but the cell plan is. But since the person already has the cell phone, they are not going out to buy a camera just to avoid buying magazines. They are using a piece of tech they had on hand to keep a copy of something they would have otherwise only been able to browse temporarily in the store. If they were going out and buying cameras just to keep from buying magazines, then I'd agree with you.
Yeah, taxes suck don't they? While you're on your anti-tax crusade could you see about the other hundreds of dollars in non-library taxes I pay for stuff I don't use or use much? For instance, Iraq. I am not using it, so why is my money being spent to obtain it?
The library doesn't allow food because, well, I think that's obvious. But they let you check books out and you're welcome to take them to the cafe with you, if you like.
They let me talk all the time. Just not in a fashion that disturbs the other patrons.
The homeless? Which library do you go to? In my town, there even seems to be some sort of "let's use the libraries as de facto homeless shelters thing going on".
But how is a common language runtime all that exciting unless it actually runs on a variety of platforms? Is there a.NET virtual machine available for anything but Windows running on x86? I mean, if the platform is that singular, who needs a runtime at all?
Yes. There are laws that restrict the behavior of cops. While they might not prevent the ethically questionable behavior you mention, it would potentially make any such information obtained difficult to use as evidence in court.
What are you talking about? In that movie Marisa Tomei's character was a surprise expert witness put on the stand at the last minute to present a dazzling display of automotive knowledge and trounce the prosecution's case by using obscure knowledge.:)
Bull. About six years ago I was looking for temp office work. I'd never used Microsoft Office or Windows in my life (having grown up on C-64 and Mac). The temp agency I went to had a computerized test to determine typing speed, Word and Excel proficiency. Of course I type well. But I also got a 95% on the Word test. And I did reasonably well on the Excel test. When I got my first assignment, it was clear that my broader experience with computers was an advantage in learning MS Office and Windows. Skills is skills and if the prospective boss don't get that, well, you're better off. Employers who don't want smart, adaptable employees are to be considered with some measure of suspicion, imho.
Now obviously if the job was to be a LAN admin for an all-Windows shop, not knowing MS is a problem. But if the job is going to involve typing up documents, simple graphing, and the occasional mail merge... you really don't need to know Microsoft in advance. You do need to be familiar and comfortable with those things though.
Why can't Joe User handle the command line? They did just fine with Apple IIs, C-64s and DOS, didn't they? Give this GUI-only nonsense a rest. It's an education issue... and not a difficult one at that.
As to the kernel question, most of the kernel can be built as modules. Systems like Knoppix and RedHat then use hardware detection to decide which modules to load. Why is anyone recompiling their kernel unless they're a Gentoo geek or using some fairly esoteric hardware? And even then, why wouldn't a sane distro simply package those in a.deb or.rpm?
Jonathan Oxer is Founder and Technical Director of Internet Vision Technologies, an Australian web application development agency with clients around the world. He is also a Debian developer and cmdrtaco felcher, and was organiser of the Debian Mini-Conf in Perth in January 2003 in association with Linux Conf Australia where he presented one of the technical papers.
Moderators: if you're going to mod up a repost of an article, please make sure it has been reproduced faithfully. Really, do you people even read the posts you're moderating, or do you just look for keywords and then vote accordingly?
Not to mention the need to trace exaclly who owns the rights to what.
Then who is going to prosecute me for trading those games, eh?:)
Seriously, this is why the latest proposed copyright law amendments which proposes to expire copyright unless renewed for a small fee and requires the registration of the copyright holder into the public record is so important.
That doesn't give the public the right to pirate the games.
Actually, the public has a natural right to use, dissassemble, reassemble, copy, share, tinker with, and destroy the software/games/music/books/photos it obtains. In the U.S. this is even recognized in the Constitution, which required a special clause to allow Congress to create copyrights and patents. The idea was that the public needed to bargain away some of its rights in order to encourage authors and publishers to do their thing. Of course, now that we've bargained away our natural rights (well, I didn't do it, and neither did you, but we're stuck with the decision to do so made by some guys who died 200 years ago), what you say is true. I just wanted to clarify.:)
Except some parts of the article make it sound like FSF owns part of the kernel? Anyone more familiar with the kernel understand that segment that would be willing to explain it to me?:)
Oh, I see, there was no such thing as a Japanese civilian. I never knew that before. I suppose then it's justified to kill more of them with two quick attacks than they ever killed of our soldiers in the whole rest of the war. Thanks for simplifying this matter so well. Before I thought killing lots of people was a complicated moral issue. Apparently if they're not "really" civilians then worrying about killing them is just relativism.
It is reponsible to drop a nuclear bomb on, not one, but two crowded cities full of civilians, including women and children? Approx. 200,000 people are reported to have died either directly or indirectly as a result of those bombs being dropped. Many more suffered long term health effects from the radiation. If that's your idea of responsible use, I'd shudder to think what you consider out of bounds.
Like all good myths (or lies if you want to be nasty), the story told does have some truth in it. The story told makes it sound as though US astronauts simply weren't writing in space until the invention of this pen. The story tries to make some sort of point that everything doesn't have to be all whizbang fancy, when clearly the facts contradict the "lesson" in the story. The pens turned out to be a great boon to both space programs because there were lots of problems with pencils.
Ian Murdock handed the reins of the Debian project to Bruce Perens in 1996. Progeny was founded three years later in 1999. To say that the kind of control that Gentoo Inc has over Gentoo Linux is similar to any relationship between Progeny and Debian is to stretch the comparison to the breaking point if you ask me.
The GNU project is a good project. It also really has helped Linux but then so has X, Samba, perl, php, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Apache. Apache really has been one bigest helps to getting Linux in to the main stream.
Or conversely one could claim that GNU was a great project and that the Linux kernel, X, Samba, perl, etc helped GNU into the mainstream, except that people keep calling it "Linux".
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You're not making life easier for the filesharing crowd, you know. You really ought to cut down on the caffeine and slow down the pace of your postings in these threads.
Playing music at a private non-commercial party is no more illegal than having some friends over to watch a prerecorded movie. Those are both private performances that are allowed because copyright law only forbids public performances.
And on that score, public performances, at least for music, are covered under a compulsory license. Which means that any song ever produced, I have the right to perform it in public without any permission from the copyright holder, as long as I pay the compulsory license fee. Which, BTW, is paid to the groups ASCAP and BMI, not the RIAA.
As for online sharing, you need to be more specific with examples of the type of abuse you're concerned about for anyone to have a reasonable discussion of same. Obviously there are a number of places we might look at where the copyright law has gone beyond its initial intent and instead granted a sort of homestead-style property right to ideas. Obviously the ever-expanding scope and strength of copyright erodes our natural rights in our property and to free speech, but do you really expect to convince anyone of that with hyperbole and misstatements of fact?
Dear Dimwit #654864, using a lot of capital letters does not make your argument better. Also, red-baiting is so 1950's. Would you get over it already? Copyright is governmental interference in the free market-- much closer to Communism than any filesharing. It says so right there in the U.S. Constitution: "to promote". That's the Founding Fathers saying, "the free market is insufficient in this case, so let's legislate in favor of authors/inventors/publishers/whatever."
Will the real Bruce Perens please stand up?
This was exactly my thought. How much of this is just an attempt to sell their proprietary software?
Excellent link. Thank you.
That's nice, but if it doesn't work without trampling Fair Use, then that business model needs to be re-examined. Copyright isn't a natural right, it is a bargain struck between the public and the authors and publishers.
Fair use laws might allow you to make copies of magazine content which you have purchased for your own personal use, but they don't allow you to make copies of magazine (or other) content which you have not purchased, except maybe for the purpose of critique.
That is an inaccurate statement. First, if you read the four clauses of the Fair Use exception code, there is nothing in there to the effect that the original work must have been purchased, or even obtained legitimately. Second, if I have to purchase something in order to copy it, this would invalidate Fair Use when done at the library. Imagine writing a research paper and having to buy a copy of every source you quoted. Ridiculous, right?
As to the cost of doing business (with respect to shrinkwrapping, etc), I should think that it does raise the costs. That is unfortunate. But it is the easiest practical solution-- as cameras get smaller and better how will you even know if someone is using one? Also, as you point out, you just can't watch everyone all the time.
And FWIW, as I understand it, many of the cell phones available today (especially in Japan) have cameras. And the phone itself is not expensive, but the cell plan is. But since the person already has the cell phone, they are not going out to buy a camera just to avoid buying magazines. They are using a piece of tech they had on hand to keep a copy of something they would have otherwise only been able to browse temporarily in the store. If they were going out and buying cameras just to keep from buying magazines, then I'd agree with you.
Yeah, taxes suck don't they? While you're on your anti-tax crusade could you see about the other hundreds of dollars in non-library taxes I pay for stuff I don't use or use much? For instance, Iraq. I am not using it, so why is my money being spent to obtain it?
The library doesn't allow food because, well, I think that's obvious. But they let you check books out and you're welcome to take them to the cafe with you, if you like.
They let me talk all the time. Just not in a fashion that disturbs the other patrons.
The homeless? Which library do you go to? In my town, there even seems to be some sort of "let's use the libraries as de facto homeless shelters thing going on".
If all that's evil, let's have more of it.
But how is a common language runtime all that exciting unless it actually runs on a variety of platforms? Is there a .NET virtual machine available for anything but Windows running on x86? I mean, if the platform is that singular, who needs a runtime at all?
Yes. There are laws that restrict the behavior of cops. While they might not prevent the ethically questionable behavior you mention, it would potentially make any such information obtained difficult to use as evidence in court.
Cracks happen
Which is exactly why this law is such a good thing.
What are you talking about? In that movie Marisa Tomei's character was a surprise expert witness put on the stand at the last minute to present a dazzling display of automotive knowledge and trounce the prosecution's case by using obscure knowledge. :)
Other than that, your statement is correct.
Bull. About six years ago I was looking for temp office work. I'd never used Microsoft Office or Windows in my life (having grown up on C-64 and Mac). The temp agency I went to had a computerized test to determine typing speed, Word and Excel proficiency. Of course I type well. But I also got a 95% on the Word test. And I did reasonably well on the Excel test. When I got my first assignment, it was clear that my broader experience with computers was an advantage in learning MS Office and Windows. Skills is skills and if the prospective boss don't get that, well, you're better off. Employers who don't want smart, adaptable employees are to be considered with some measure of suspicion, imho.
Now obviously if the job was to be a LAN admin for an all-Windows shop, not knowing MS is a problem. But if the job is going to involve typing up documents, simple graphing, and the occasional mail merge... you really don't need to know Microsoft in advance. You do need to be familiar and comfortable with those things though.
Why can't Joe User handle the command line? They did just fine with Apple IIs, C-64s and DOS, didn't they? Give this GUI-only nonsense a rest. It's an education issue... and not a difficult one at that.
.deb or .rpm?
As to the kernel question, most of the kernel can be built as modules. Systems like Knoppix and RedHat then use hardware detection to decide which modules to load. Why is anyone recompiling their kernel unless they're a Gentoo geek or using some fairly esoteric hardware? And even then, why wouldn't a sane distro simply package those in a
Jonathan Oxer is Founder and Technical Director of Internet Vision Technologies, an Australian web application development agency with clients around the world. He is also a Debian developer and cmdrtaco felcher, and was organiser of the Debian Mini-Conf in Perth in January 2003 in association with Linux Conf Australia where he presented one of the technical papers.
Moderators: if you're going to mod up a repost of an article, please make sure it has been reproduced faithfully. Really, do you people even read the posts you're moderating, or do you just look for keywords and then vote accordingly?
Not to mention the need to trace exaclly who owns the rights to what.
:)
Then who is going to prosecute me for trading those games, eh?
Seriously, this is why the latest proposed copyright law amendments which proposes to expire copyright unless renewed for a small fee and requires the registration of the copyright holder into the public record is so important.
Why do you need to buy an original? There are lots of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man games out there, both in arcade boxes and as rewrites for new hardware.
That doesn't give the public the right to pirate the games.
:)
Actually, the public has a natural right to use, dissassemble, reassemble, copy, share, tinker with, and destroy the software/games/music/books/photos it obtains. In the U.S. this is even recognized in the Constitution, which required a special clause to allow Congress to create copyrights and patents. The idea was that the public needed to bargain away some of its rights in order to encourage authors and publishers to do their thing. Of course, now that we've bargained away our natural rights (well, I didn't do it, and neither did you, but we're stuck with the decision to do so made by some guys who died 200 years ago), what you say is true. I just wanted to clarify.
But what does IBM possibly have to gain from any of this? Except maybe a lot of free press... and further goodwill from Linux geeks.
Except some parts of the article make it sound like FSF owns part of the kernel? Anyone more familiar with the kernel understand that segment that would be willing to explain it to me? :)
Oh, I see, there was no such thing as a Japanese civilian. I never knew that before. I suppose then it's justified to kill more of them with two quick attacks than they ever killed of our soldiers in the whole rest of the war. Thanks for simplifying this matter so well. Before I thought killing lots of people was a complicated moral issue. Apparently if they're not "really" civilians then worrying about killing them is just relativism.
It is reponsible to drop a nuclear bomb on, not one, but two crowded cities full of civilians, including women and children? Approx. 200,000 people are reported to have died either directly or indirectly as a result of those bombs being dropped. Many more suffered long term health effects from the radiation. If that's your idea of responsible use, I'd shudder to think what you consider out of bounds.
Like all good myths (or lies if you want to be nasty), the story told does have some truth in it. The story told makes it sound as though US astronauts simply weren't writing in space until the invention of this pen. The story tries to make some sort of point that everything doesn't have to be all whizbang fancy, when clearly the facts contradict the "lesson" in the story. The pens turned out to be a great boon to both space programs because there were lots of problems with pencils.
Ian Murdock handed the reins of the Debian project to Bruce Perens in 1996. Progeny was founded three years later in 1999. To say that the kind of control that Gentoo Inc has over Gentoo Linux is similar to any relationship between Progeny and Debian is to stretch the comparison to the breaking point if you ask me.
The GNU project is a good project. It also really has helped Linux but then so has X, Samba, perl, php, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Apache. Apache really has been one bigest helps to getting Linux in to the main stream.
Or conversely one could claim that GNU was a great project and that the Linux kernel, X, Samba, perl, etc helped GNU into the mainstream, except that people keep calling it "Linux".