isn't it in the slightest bit illegal to
actually *sell* the database?
I would have to think that by the act of posting a message on the a newsgroup you have given permission for it to be distributed and copied via NNTP to the various and sundry news-servers on the net.
Very few of these servers are available on an open basis. ISPs almost always require some sort of compensation for access.
Whether the Deja archive is a news-server or something more woud be a point for lawyers to argue.
I would say that it is quite clear that the transfer of a news-server and it's contents from one commercial entity to another is a common occurance - any time an ISP is bought out this will obviously occur. So the idea of your posts getting bought and sold - get over it, it's already happened, and will continue to happen.
For my own case, I feel that the usefulness of the Deja archive as a source of knowledge far outweighs the loss of whatever small value my postings may have, and as such I happily provide such under the BSD license.
I hope that other Open Source users will take the same view.
Well, they are talking about 1 TB for the 5 year archive. At 5 GB per DVD uncompressed that would be 200 DVD's. If you get 10:1 (a streach) compression that's still 20 DVD's.
The problem with Microsoft's statement is that merely copying code that someone else wrote is NOT innovation!
Innovation is coming up with something new of your own. What Microsoft wants to be able to do is to take a piece of code developed by public funding and use it whole-hog in their own products. Clearly this not innovation, it is COPYING!
If someone releases a piece of code under the GPL that expresses an innovative idea, Microsoft is perfectly free to use the underlying idea in their products without encumberance, so long as they write their own implementation. How is this a threat to innovation?
It seems to me that the important lesson here is to parents:
YOU are responsible for the process of developing your child into a free, thinking adult. Forces outside your home will do their best to whittle your progeny down to a TV hypnotized semi-concious consumer-droid. If you want your child to grow up to be a free adult, the job is yours. May you succeed.
The harm to this child will depend on the support she receives from her parents. If she has been given a strong enough a world view to resist Barbie-and-Ken America (seems like she is off to a good start) then this will become an incident that will strengthen her.
A lot of cable companies have pretty good attitudes towards this. Basically the one I use states that it's 'unsupported' and that if anything gets in or out of your subnet that shouldn't, it's your problem.
We have public health care, publicly funded university loans, national welfare institutions, etc, in short, a lot of things Americans have sacrificed to a combination of neo-liberal and right-wing ideology.
I really like it when somebody from another country spouts off about something they obviously know nothing about.
For your information, the US has a large number of public health care programs, national welfare institutions and publically funded university loans. The only presumable difference between the programs in the US and Australia is that the US programs are perhaps a bit narrower in scope - we don't have an unlimited right to welfare for life, nor is there universal free health care, and there may be means tests associated with the student loans.
I know that some of the American libertarian types out there may not like this - but I look at it this way, when speech is as 'free' as it is in the US, it basically becomes meaningless.
I would say that you guaged this pretty accurately. I'm an American, and a bit of a libertarian, and I don't like this concept AT ALL.
The constitutional guarantee of free speech that we have prevents all sorts of governmental nonsense, including attempts at censorship much like this the topic of this article. The US has strong puritan and Calvanist roots, and if it weren't for the the First Amendment we'd have all sorts of censorship.
it seems that we value using our speech wisely and responsibly
How is this different from government thought control?
Their computers will come "Free" with one year of Microsoft.NET access!
Yup. I can just see the bundling agreements now. Dell shall install the.NET bundle on all PCs it sells. Or the site licenses - XYZ Megacorp shall install.NET on all of it's PCs globally and pay pay pay megabux to Microsoft per year for the priveledge.
And thus Microsoft gets it's dream - defacto ownership of the internet - because.NET requires Microsoft servers.
The only thing that you can do when you get this sort of agreement forced on you is to walk.
There are fairly standard employment agreements that cede rights to inventions that you make while working on a company's projects to the company. These are needed to protect the company from having you patent work that you did while in their employee. Anything more than this is shady business practice.
When you run into a company trying to do something like this you have to recognize that this company is not likely to treat it's employees with respect.
I couldn't give a fuck less if you visit my site if you want to browse the web in some beatup piece of shit browser, you're not the guy I'm looking for.
The main problem I have with IE is that IE tries and often succeeds in rendering completely invalid HTML. It seems to me that it isn't too much to ask that a web developer run his HTML through a validator.
Any college admissions system worth it's salt has a multiple regression model that predicts the likely success of a student based on a variety of parameters - including the results of a standardized test like the SAT, the GPA, what school that GPA was attained at, what courses and track the student was enrolled in, and the extracurricular activities the student participated in, etc.
Questions like 'what is a 3.9 at Stuy' worth already have answers.
Blanket regection of standarized tests is stupid, for the simple reason that they provide a useful predictor of the likely success of a student.
Wasn't there a law passed recently (within the last year) that requires companies who collect information on minors online to fully disclose what that information is AND to get parental consent?
What is happening here is that the MUSIC COMPANIES are doing the controlling. Artists could probably make a good deal more money from their art if they could sell directly to the BUYING public.
There is nothing to prevent the artist from doing exactly that today. The way that the music companies obtain copyright rights is through transfer from the original artist via contract that offeres the artist some compensation in return. There are web sites that directly offer the work of independent artists.
Some authors, most notably Stephen King are doing exactly this. Various musical groups are also trying direct sales. Whether they will be able to succeed without the marketing expertise of the large publishers is an open question.
Even I have pity on RIAA if this horrendous law passes.
Well, under the US Constitution bills of attainder are forbidden. It will be very interesting to see how Congress will be able to overcome this issue.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
Re:Rumors of BSD Death Exaggurated
on
Is BSD Dying?
·
· Score: 2
Mac OS X is NOT BSD!
No, it's BSD +.
It's not like they are taking a BSD and sticking a gui on top of it like X.
Actually, Apple is doing exactly that - they are takiing BSD and sticking a GUI on it.
Also - X is not a GUI. X is a toolbox that lets you implement a GUI. Apple is using their own toolbox to implement their own GUI on BSD.
Microsoft Windows has stolen tons of BSD code too, do they count as a BSD?
First, the term 'steal' means to take without permisison. Clearly the BSD license gives permission. Therefore it is not possible for Microsoft to steal BSD code.
Second, Microsft clearly is not BSD. If it was it wouldn't crash.
Owning a trademark in one realm of human communication doesn't give you the right to own it in all others.
Bzzzt. Wrong. The main point of law is the question of whether the name domain OpenSSH might cause confusion. In this case, given the identical functionality if the products I think they have a good case.
"Duron Paints." Now, if Duron was a registered trademark before AMD even conceived of the chip by the same name, Duron Paints can sue AMD, and cause AMD to rename their Duron line.
Nah. Trademark law provides for unrelated products to be sold under the same trademark without infringement.
Many of these crazy patent/trademark infringemtent lawsuits we see all share one thing in common: They are obnoxiously late. The law should have strong enforcement of making sure lawsuits happen right after the infringement.
Both trademark and patent laws contain provisions requiring that the owner file claims within a limited period of time. In the case of SSH the trademark holder may already be too late.
Slashdot Mirror
Does Google own the database of Usenet postings?
isn't it in the slightest bit illegal to
actually *sell* the database?
I would have to think that by the act of posting a message on the a newsgroup you have given permission for it to be distributed and copied via NNTP to the various and sundry news-servers on the net.
Very few of these servers are available on an open basis. ISPs almost always require some sort of compensation for access.
Whether the Deja archive is a news-server or something more woud be a point for lawyers to argue.
I would say that it is quite clear that the transfer of a news-server and it's contents from one commercial entity to another is a common occurance - any time an ISP is bought out this will obviously occur. So the idea of your posts getting bought and sold - get over it, it's already happened, and will continue to happen.
For my own case, I feel that the usefulness of the Deja archive as a source of knowledge far outweighs the loss of whatever small value my postings may have, and as such I happily provide such under the BSD license.
I hope that other Open Source users will take the same view.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
Well, they are talking about 1 TB for the 5 year archive. At 5 GB per DVD uncompressed that would be 200 DVD's. If you get 10:1 (a streach) compression that's still 20 DVD's.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
The problem with Microsoft's statement is that merely copying code that someone else wrote is NOT innovation!
Innovation is coming up with something new of your own. What Microsoft wants to be able to do is to take a piece of code developed by public funding and use it whole-hog in their own products. Clearly this not innovation, it is COPYING!
If someone releases a piece of code under the GPL that expresses an innovative idea, Microsoft is perfectly free to use the underlying idea in their products without encumberance, so long as they write their own implementation. How is this a threat to innovation?
Cimminy.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
Why isn't there a story on fuckedcompany.com about this yet?
MOVE 'ZIG'.
It seems to me that the important lesson here is to parents:
YOU are responsible for the process of developing your child into a free, thinking adult. Forces outside your home will do their best to whittle your progeny down to a TV hypnotized semi-concious consumer-droid. If you want your child to grow up to be a free adult, the job is yours. May you succeed.
The harm to this child will depend on the support she receives from her parents. If she has been given a strong enough a world view to resist Barbie-and-Ken America (seems like she is off to a good start) then this will become an incident that will strengthen her.
See Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
A lot of cable companies have pretty good attitudes towards this. Basically the one I use states that it's 'unsupported' and that if anything gets in or out of your subnet that shouldn't, it's your problem.
I can certainly go along with that.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
We have public health care, publicly funded university loans, national welfare institutions, etc, in short, a lot of things Americans have sacrificed to a combination of neo-liberal and right-wing ideology.
I really like it when somebody from another country spouts off about something they obviously know nothing about.
For your information, the US has a large number of public health care programs, national welfare institutions and publically funded university loans. The only presumable difference between the programs in the US and Australia is that the US programs are perhaps a bit narrower in scope - we don't have an unlimited right to welfare for life, nor is there universal free health care, and there may be means tests associated with the student loans.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
I know that some of the American libertarian types out there may not like this - but I look at it this way, when speech is as 'free' as it is in the US, it basically becomes meaningless.
I would say that you guaged this pretty accurately. I'm an American, and a bit of a libertarian, and I don't like this concept AT ALL.
The constitutional guarantee of free speech that we have prevents all sorts of governmental nonsense, including attempts at censorship much like this the topic of this article. The US has strong puritan and Calvanist roots, and if it weren't for the the First Amendment we'd have all sorts of censorship.
it seems that we value using our speech wisely and responsibly
How is this different from government thought control?
MOVE 'ZIG'.
Sex is heriditary, if your parents didn't have it chances are good you won't either.
What with cloning and in-vtro fertilization and same sex marriages it seems to me that your statement is becomming outmoded.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
The problem with the CE isn't the languages, it's the cost of a development system!
MOVE 'ZIG'.
Their computers will come "Free" with one year of Microsoft .NET access!
.NET bundle on all PCs it sells. Or the site licenses - XYZ Megacorp shall install .NET on all of it's PCs globally and pay pay pay megabux to Microsoft per year for the priveledge.
.NET requires Microsoft servers.
Yup. I can just see the bundling agreements now. Dell shall install the
And thus Microsoft gets it's dream - defacto ownership of the internet - because
Makes me want to puke.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
The only thing that you can do when you get this sort of agreement forced on you is to walk.
There are fairly standard employment agreements that cede rights to inventions that you make while working on a company's projects to the company. These are needed to protect the company from having you patent work that you did while in their employee. Anything more than this is shady business practice.
When you run into a company trying to do something like this you have to recognize that this company is not likely to treat it's employees with respect.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
Mulberry. It's commercial, but very nice.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
I couldn't give a fuck less if you visit my site if you want to browse the web in some beatup piece of shit browser, you're not the guy I'm looking for.
The main problem I have with IE is that IE tries and often succeeds in rendering completely invalid HTML. It seems to me that it isn't too much to ask that a web developer run his HTML through a validator.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
Toyota Canada is a sorry-ass lame site. The use of redirect loops to trap users is flat out rude.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
Any college admissions system worth it's salt has a multiple regression model that predicts the likely success of a student based on a variety of parameters - including the results of a standardized test like the SAT, the GPA, what school that GPA was attained at, what courses and track the student was enrolled in, and the extracurricular activities the student participated in, etc.
Questions like 'what is a 3.9 at Stuy' worth already have answers.
Blanket regection of standarized tests is stupid, for the simple reason that they provide a useful predictor of the likely success of a student.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
Wasn't there a law passed recently (within the last year) that requires companies who collect information on minors online to fully disclose what that information is AND to get parental consent?
Thrown out as unconstitional.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
If a given copyright law was set aside then the GPL would be unneeded.
BSD makes their stuff freely available now. To them copyright is irrelevant already.
A company would have no way to prevent others from selling copies of their binary-only software
They sure would. Dongles, encryption, licenses, application key servers, you name it.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
invaded by honest but mind-controlling aliens
They should go here to obtain the software and hardware to deal with this problem.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
What is happening here is that the MUSIC COMPANIES are doing the controlling. Artists could probably make a good deal more money from their art if they could sell directly to the BUYING public.
There is nothing to prevent the artist from doing exactly that today. The way that the music companies obtain copyright rights is through transfer from the original artist via contract that offeres the artist some compensation in return. There are web sites that directly offer the work of independent artists.
Some authors, most notably Stephen King are doing exactly this. Various musical groups are also trying direct sales. Whether they will be able to succeed without the marketing expertise of the large publishers is an open question.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
Even I have pity on RIAA if this horrendous law passes.
Well, under the US Constitution bills of attainder are forbidden. It will be very interesting to see how Congress will be able to overcome this issue.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
Mac OS X is NOT BSD!
No, it's BSD +.
It's not like they are taking a BSD and sticking a gui on top of it like X.
Actually, Apple is doing exactly that - they are takiing BSD and sticking a GUI on it.
Also - X is not a GUI. X is a toolbox that lets you implement a GUI. Apple is using their own toolbox to implement their own GUI on BSD.
Microsoft Windows has stolen tons of BSD code too, do they count as a BSD?
First, the term 'steal' means to take without permisison. Clearly the BSD license gives permission. Therefore it is not possible for Microsoft to steal BSD code.
Second, Microsft clearly is not BSD. If it was it wouldn't crash.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
Owning a trademark in one realm of human communication doesn't give you the right to own it in all others.
Bzzzt. Wrong. The main point of law is the question of whether the name domain OpenSSH might cause confusion. In this case, given the identical functionality if the products I think they have a good case.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
"Duron Paints." Now, if Duron was a registered trademark before AMD even conceived of the chip by the same name, Duron Paints can sue AMD, and cause AMD to rename their Duron line.
Nah. Trademark law provides for unrelated products to be sold under the same trademark without infringement.
MOVE 'ZIG'.
Many of these crazy patent/trademark infringemtent lawsuits we see all share one thing in common: They are obnoxiously late. The law should have strong enforcement of making sure lawsuits happen right after the infringement.
Both trademark and patent laws contain provisions requiring that the owner file claims within a limited period of time. In the case of SSH the trademark holder may already be too late.
MOVE 'ZIG'.