In most cases, such an incident would be immediately followed in the mainstream media by a report on the response of the stock market. In this instance, I do not believe that we will see such a report.
It seems that, with the potential for legitimate large-scale online distribution, the RIAA realizes that there might not be a "down the line" for them (at least, in not such an "important" capacity), so they are currently doing everything that they can do to save their worn-out, overvalued business model.
The embezzling of money is simply disanalogous. If there is SCO IP in the Linux kernel, does that automatically mean that SCO's Unix business was hurt as a result (did they lose any money)? There is no way to prove this, unless, of course, there was no IP theft. IMHO, however, the main point behind the replacing of code is, Linux can stand-up on its own, regardless. With sufficient motivation, kernel hackers could easily implement the offending sections of code (if there are, in fact, offenses), and all involved parties (IBM, SCO, RH, SuSe, etc.) could go on with their businesses. This is simply an attempt by SCO to save a sinking ship, that being their "flawed business model" (to use McBride's words), by full-out attacking a "business model" that is the antithesis -- and far superior -- to their own.
SCO will no doubt argue that, at the time, they didn't realise the source contained their copyrighted material.
But, as the author says, at the time of the writing of the paper, SCO was still distributing the source archive, including the GPL. This fact hasn't changed, so they are now knowingly distributing it.
Kurzweil has actually been preaching about this for quite a while now, and the details of Marshall Brain's article are eerily reminiscent of both of the above mentioned books.
Even if you normally defend the right of the RIAA to try to prevent copywritten music from being stolen, this should seriously scare you if you care anything about your privacy. Just in case there is still anyone who isn't fully aware of this, the RIAA, under the DMCA, is able to file informational subpoenas without the signature of a judge. This particular provision of the DMCA has been unsuccessfully challenged by Verizon in US District Court.
So, even if you have never downloaded a copywritten mp3, the RIAA (if they wake up one morning and decide that they feel like it) can legally demand information about you from your ISP. Your real name, your address, your phone number, and who knows what else. This, my US citizen friends, is unacceptable. And don't get me wrong, I'm all for the enforcement of the law, but when my privacy can be violated for the sake of finding who the person is that stole the latest Justin Timberlake single so that the RIAA can fine them for between $750 to $150,000, then things have gotten out of hand.
I think that the real point of the article is summed-up in this brief quote that appears near the end:
Dr Kanazawa theorises after a man settles down, the testosterone level falls, as does his creative output.
The article obviously begs to be laughed at, but,in the case of Turing, his testosterone level -- and hence, motivation to work -- was forcefully lowered. It just seems to me that this case provides support for Dr Kanazawa's research.
The life of Alan Turing somewhat ironically illustrates the idea that the article conveys better than any other case that I can think of in science. Tried and convicted for homosexual activity in Manchester in the middle of the last century at the age of fourty-one, Turing's sentence consisted of estrogen injections which were meant to quell his libido. This was essentially the end of what had been a very productive life. Two years later, he apparently committed suicide. The cause of death: poisoning by a cyanide-laced apple.
There is inappropriate intellectual property in Linux. The development process has no one that is ensuring that inappropriate code is not getting into Linux. All that's there is an honor system, and obviously there are a few, at least, that have broken that honor.
How does anyone know that the code in question was not first in Linux, then integrated into System V, thus violating the GPL?
Addimitedly, the open source model is not immune to the type of issue that SCO has raised, but I mean, really, it seems as if he is inferring that the closed source model is immune to the same type of problem. I would quite plainly argue that this is just not the case. Does SCO have a team of software engineers that audit the System V code to ensure that no GPLed software is included in the OS? I doubt it.
So what is the solution? Dissolving intellectual property might be something that would be worth looking into, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
Basically what I'm trying to say is that Microsoft fully realizes that Linux is a somewhat cheaper system to opearate, and this is one way that it is trying to change that. By giving it away free, they've reduced the cost of running Windows by a lot.
Isn't this the problem, though? You really are paying the "Microsoft Tax" in this sense - and that is just what they want. The cost of the software is likely built-into everyone's tuition in one way or another (as you've eluded to) - this is the worst possible scenario.
How long before you are born owing a debt to Microsoft (or any other corporation who thinks that you owe them for their existence)? In that regard, I'm glad we have zealots like RMS who recognize that _Freedom_ doesn't have a pricetag.
Hi all, just a bit of status. Since I last made an entry here, you've helped us pay two months rent, catch up on our car loan and insurance and the phone bills, pay grocery bills and gasoline and so on. Really appreciated. The money has pretty much run out at this point, but I have an $8.50/hour job doing linux support at an inexpensive colo here in Houston, and at least we can now pay the rent, which includes the utilities, and a bit more. We're hoping to hear back from the student loan consolidation people. I'm not sure how long we'll stay connected to the Internet
So I suppose MIT beat all the other ivy-league schools with respect to not getting hacked but then again what should you expect from the home of "hacks".
This could be a HUGE momentum swing. Let's take advantage of it...
Excellent point... if the 'Slashdot Effect' can bring most websites to their knees, we might be able to actually get some attention from the US Congress (or most any other major decision-making body) if the community would just initiate and follow-thru on a letter-writing/e-mail campaign (for this and/or another worthwhile cause).
I suppose that the follow-thru always seems to be the difficult part, though.
Slashdot Mirror
In most cases, such an incident would be immediately followed in the mainstream media by a report on the response of the stock market. In this instance, I do not believe that we will see such a report.
Looks like we might have a chance to see the first Slashdotted conference call.
When the answers to an interview are this extensive, it is perfectly acceptable to span an article over multiple pages.
It seems that, with the potential for legitimate large-scale online distribution, the RIAA realizes that there might not be a "down the line" for them (at least, in not such an "important" capacity), so they are currently doing everything that they can do to save their worn-out, overvalued business model.
The embezzling of money is simply disanalogous. If there is SCO IP in the Linux kernel, does that automatically mean that SCO's Unix business was hurt as a result (did they lose any money)? There is no way to prove this, unless, of course, there was no IP theft. IMHO, however, the main point behind the replacing of code is, Linux can stand-up on its own, regardless. With sufficient motivation, kernel hackers could easily implement the offending sections of code (if there are, in fact, offenses), and all involved parties (IBM, SCO, RH, SuSe, etc.) could go on with their businesses. This is simply an attempt by SCO to save a sinking ship, that being their "flawed business model" (to use McBride's words), by full-out attacking a "business model" that is the antithesis -- and far superior -- to their own.
Slashdot has just made "Close Encounters of the Mars Kind" the most read story in the recorded history of Elite Geek (and by quite a large margin).
SCO will no doubt argue that, at the time, they didn't realise the source contained their copyrighted material.
/ SRPMS/kernel-source-2.4.19.SuSE-106.nosrc.rpm
But, as the author says, at the time of the writing of the paper, SCO was still distributing the source archive, including the GPL. This fact hasn't changed, so they are now knowingly distributing it.
ftp://ftp.sco.com/pub/scolinux/server/4.0/updates
A very well attended symposium was held at Stanford in 1999 that covered this very topic (in even more optimistic depth, in the case of the majority of the speakers). Entitled, Will Spiritual Robots Replace Humanity By 2100?, the symposium was organized by Doug Hofstadter and was themed around two books that expoused very similar views and were written independently of each other around that time: Ray Kurzweil's The Age of Spiritual Machines and Hans Moravec's Robot.
Kurzweil has actually been preaching about this for quite a while now, and the details of Marshall Brain's article are eerily reminiscent of both of the above mentioned books.
Even if you normally defend the right of the RIAA to try to prevent copywritten music from being stolen, this should seriously scare you if you care anything about your privacy. Just in case there is still anyone who isn't fully aware of this, the RIAA, under the DMCA, is able to file informational subpoenas without the signature of a judge. This particular provision of the DMCA has been unsuccessfully challenged by Verizon in US District Court.
So, even if you have never downloaded a copywritten mp3, the RIAA (if they wake up one morning and decide that they feel like it) can legally demand information about you from your ISP. Your real name, your address, your phone number, and who knows what else. This, my US citizen friends, is unacceptable. And don't get me wrong, I'm all for the enforcement of the law, but when my privacy can be violated for the sake of finding who the person is that stole the latest Justin Timberlake single so that the RIAA can fine them for between $750 to $150,000, then things have gotten out of hand.
I think that the real point of the article is summed-up in this brief quote that appears near the end:
Dr Kanazawa theorises after a man settles down, the testosterone level falls, as does his creative output.
The article obviously begs to be laughed at, but,in the case of Turing, his testosterone level -- and hence, motivation to work -- was forcefully lowered. It just seems to me that this case provides support for Dr Kanazawa's research.
The life of Alan Turing somewhat ironically illustrates the idea that the article conveys better than any other case that I can think of in science. Tried and convicted for homosexual activity in Manchester in the middle of the last century at the age of fourty-one, Turing's sentence consisted of estrogen injections which were meant to quell his libido. This was essentially the end of what had been a very productive life. Two years later, he apparently committed suicide. The cause of death: poisoning by a cyanide-laced apple.
There is inappropriate intellectual property in Linux. The development process has no one that is ensuring that inappropriate code is not getting into Linux. All that's there is an honor system, and obviously there are a few, at least, that have broken that honor.
How does anyone know that the code in question was not first in Linux, then integrated into System V, thus violating the GPL?
Addimitedly, the open source model is not immune to the type of issue that SCO has raised, but I mean, really, it seems as if he is inferring that the closed source model is immune to the same type of problem. I would quite plainly argue that this is just not the case. Does SCO have a team of software engineers that audit the System V code to ensure that no GPLed software is included in the OS? I doubt it.
So what is the solution? Dissolving intellectual property might be something that would be worth looking into, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
applicant.
I got WinXP, Frontpage, OfficeXP, and Visual Studio from MS for being a college student, why didn't we hear about this?
No, you probably paid for it in one way or another.
Basically what I'm trying to say is that Microsoft fully realizes that Linux is a somewhat cheaper system to opearate, and this is one way that it is trying to change that. By giving it away free, they've reduced the cost of running Windows by a lot.
Isn't this the problem, though? You really are paying the "Microsoft Tax" in this sense - and that is just what they want. The cost of the software is likely built-into everyone's tuition in one way or another (as you've eluded to) - this is the worst possible scenario.
How long before you are born owing a debt to Microsoft (or any other corporation who thinks that you owe them for their existence)? In that regard, I'm glad we have zealots like RMS who recognize that _Freedom_ doesn't have a pricetag.
Not extremely important, but I believe his name on Slashdot is bero.
and
?
From http://www.palantir.swarthmore.edu/GRACE/ :
...
8 August: Grace may be on the Today show (not yet finalized).
That could be interesting.
Oops, I guess that's redundant...
System Administrator Appreciation Day
Also, the Russian version
So I suppose MIT beat all the other ivy-league schools with respect to not getting hacked but then again what should you expect from the home of "hacks".
This one is good.
Should we go ahead and setup a PayPal account now?
This could be a HUGE momentum swing. Let's take advantage of it...
Excellent point... if the 'Slashdot Effect' can bring most websites to their knees, we might be able to actually get some attention from the US Congress (or most any other major decision-making body) if the community would just initiate and follow-thru on a letter-writing/e-mail campaign (for this and/or another worthwhile cause).
I suppose that the follow-thru always seems to be the difficult part, though.
tends to be an equally sufficient means of making a statement.
What a coincidence... that's exactly how the system of checks and balances works!