Not all of these crimes are the same level of maliciousness, or harm. I'm sure the people who hacked the RIAA's web site didn't do a lot of harm, since the RIAA don't trade via that site, and it's easily restored.
If I was to hack Amazon, then I would cost them money where they have lost orders, and could onconvenience their customers since they have no idea what the cracker did.
It's a matter of context. Why do they try to lump all these into a single crime.
Of course, his main contribution was the free software philosophy, which certainly was an innovation for software design, if not actually for software.
the digital system works on 1.9GHz... your home microwave works on 2.4GHz.. It's close enough, you still want to hold that phone next to your head?
You have a 850W mobile phone!? This is just a pile of FUD. The 900MHz analogue signals are at a higher power than digital, and since they're at a lower frequency will penetrate further into the skull.
Well, I did point out that the bottle was not copyrightable. You never specified two-liter bottles, which you quite rightly say is not trademarked. However, the standard glass bottle is a trademark. I never mentioned trademarks until you brought up coca cola bottles.
Coke don't have a copyright on the bottle since there was no creativity behind it. If there was a copyright, then the law would be so fundamentally different that any decision could apply to whether the contents are an infringing copy.
But I agree that this is not a copyright issue. I just pointed out that you would have to consider the ink as digital media to point out the absurdity of considering the chip to be a content protection system.
Coke have a trademark on the shape of the bottle. If you want to sell water in it (or otherwise trade using their mark), then they would make it their business.
No. I'm not agreeing with his point, just getting the analogy straight.
Of course, if the shape of liquid in a bottle is considered copyrightable, and the liquid is digital media, then you can't. Since neither of these are the case, you can.
But surely if you're going to use that analogy, the toner is equivalent to the digital media (i.e. digital TV shows), and the chips are equivalent to the smartcards.
Because the topic is noit a Slashdot interview. Although, the mod is a little pointless in this case. Moderators should mod up, not down, except in exceptional cases.
I'll concede that she was at least partly (and possibly mostly) to blame for being so incompetent in the first place, but the burns were worse than one should reasonably expect.
The inital payout was far too large. McD did appeal, but tend not to talk too much about the fact that this appeal was succesful, and the amont was reduced. Also, she was found 20% at fault, and the amount was reduced by a further 20%. Okay, 20% is probably too little, but the court doesn't like to disagree with itself too often.
Well, presumably the court felt that 20 degrees hotter than everyone else was too hot. They made it hotter to save themselves from having to dispose of it more often. It was a cost saving measure. They put their customer at risk to save themselves money.
The example of the oven - Surely the oven is the same temperature as all the other ovens. If they had poorer insulation on the outside than other manufacturers, then I would expect to have a case.
Planes are dangerous, but I don't expect them to make them more dangerous to save fuel.
Defendant: I didn't plot to overthrow the government. I was browsing the web at the time!
Prosecutor: Which website?
Defendant: Cryptome. Check their logs!
Prosecutor: They seem to have deleted their logs
Judge: No alibi? I find the defendant GUILTY! The sentence is death
Assuming a ludicrous number of 1 000 000 000 machines, managing to try a ludicruously high 1 000 000 000 000 numbers per second at random, it will take about 3 * 10^279 years. (I'm making some guesses, and assuming we're trying to find the prime factors of a product of two 1024 bit numbers or something like that)
Of course, cunning techniques will possibly reduce this number quite considerably, and it's probably really nowhere near that high, but wer're still talking about such a huge amount of time that the age of the universe seems irrelevent.
In countries like Sweden and Norway, you cant sue McDonnalds for 100M$ for spilling hot coffee on yourself:)
To be fair to the person who did this, she only sued because the coffee was abnormally hot (third degree burns requiring a skin graft). McDonalds knew about the risk. She initally just wanted McDonalds to pay her medical bills. McDonalds refused.
I recently had a look. I decided it was a toss up between Lua and Python, depending on complexity, and who else you want to use it.
Lua is absoluetley fantastic if you just want something simple, like a programmable configuration file to call a few built in routines in a specific order, with a few ifs and an coccasional loop. Probably not for you though. It's a little too simple, and only really deals with strings and numbers.
As far as Linux goes, I'd quite like to see a crtoss compiler.
Personally, I rather liked the Watcom IDE. Not particulalry powerful, but it was nice for us "screen real estate misers" to have the compiler/project on a separate window from the code.
As far as crossbreeding goes, hopefully the Open Watcom team will realise that they can use parts of GCC if they ask the authors.
You're quite right on the DMCA. They may try an attack based on something along the lines of trade secrets if this attack is actually succesful, but all things considered, it's a pretty secure mechanism, so hopefully MS sees it this way.
Slashdot Mirror
Not all of these crimes are the same level of maliciousness, or harm. I'm sure the people who hacked the RIAA's web site didn't do a lot of harm, since the RIAA don't trade via that site, and it's easily restored.
If I was to hack Amazon, then I would cost them money where they have lost orders, and could onconvenience their customers since they have no idea what the cracker did.
It's a matter of context. Why do they try to lump all these into a single crime.
Is it just me, or has everyone else noticed a lack of information about this. What does the patent cover? What software does it apply to?
In fact, is there any information other than SCO wanting patent royalties for some undeisclosed software?
Of course, his main contribution was the free software philosophy, which certainly was an innovation for software design, if not actually for software.
Also, wans't he primarily responsible for Emacs?
the digital system works on 1.9GHz... your home microwave works on 2.4GHz.. It's close enough, you still want to hold that phone next to your head?
You have a 850W mobile phone!? This is just a pile of FUD. The 900MHz analogue signals are at a higher power than digital, and since they're at a lower frequency will penetrate further into the skull.
Pah! Computers are much better than chicks. They remain whether you do this or not.
Hmmm.. is there a list somewhere of reasons why computers are better than women?
That's an interesting argument (yes, it is a little stupid, but I realise that was your point).
But my point was that using the DMCA in the case of water in a bottle would be the same as using it for ink in a printer. So I think we agree here.
Well, I did point out that the bottle was not copyrightable. You never specified two-liter bottles, which you quite rightly say is not trademarked. However, the standard glass bottle is a trademark. I never mentioned trademarks until you brought up coca cola bottles.
Coke don't have a copyright on the bottle since there was no creativity behind it. If there was a copyright, then the law would be so fundamentally different that any decision could apply to whether the contents are an infringing copy.
But I agree that this is not a copyright issue. I just pointed out that you would have to consider the ink as digital media to point out the absurdity of considering the chip to be a content protection system.
Umm... No, actually, then I'll do something wrong - I'll speak out in defiance of the government.
Coke have a trademark on the shape of the bottle. If you want to sell water in it (or otherwise trade using their mark), then they would make it their business.
We're talking copyright here.
It should be.
The other side of this is that the law has a responsibility to only make things illegal that are wrong in the first place.
erm.... No it wouldn't be a good thing. Nor would legalising murder, or arresting people for being left handed.
No. I'm not agreeing with his point, just getting the analogy straight.
Of course, if the shape of liquid in a bottle is considered copyrightable, and the liquid is digital media, then you can't. Since neither of these are the case, you can.
But surely if you're going to use that analogy, the toner is equivalent to the digital media (i.e. digital TV shows), and the chips are equivalent to the smartcards.
Because the topic is noit a Slashdot interview. Although, the mod is a little pointless in this case. Moderators should mod up, not down, except in exceptional cases.
I'll concede that she was at least partly (and possibly mostly) to blame for being so incompetent in the first place, but the burns were worse than one should reasonably expect.
The inital payout was far too large. McD did appeal, but tend not to talk too much about the fact that this appeal was succesful, and the amont was reduced. Also, she was found 20% at fault, and the amount was reduced by a further 20%. Okay, 20% is probably too little, but the court doesn't like to disagree with itself too often.
Well, presumably the court felt that 20 degrees hotter than everyone else was too hot. They made it hotter to save themselves from having to dispose of it more often. It was a cost saving measure. They put their customer at risk to save themselves money.
The example of the oven - Surely the oven is the same temperature as all the other ovens. If they had poorer insulation on the outside than other manufacturers, then I would expect to have a case.
Planes are dangerous, but I don't expect them to make them more dangerous to save fuel.
Defendant: I didn't plot to overthrow the government. I was browsing the web at the time!
Prosecutor: Which website?
Defendant: Cryptome. Check their logs!
Prosecutor: They seem to have deleted their logs
Judge: No alibi? I find the defendant GUILTY! The sentence is death
Assuming a ludicrous number of 1 000 000 000 machines, managing to try a ludicruously high 1 000 000 000 000 numbers per second at random, it will take about 3 * 10^279 years. (I'm making some guesses, and assuming we're trying to find the prime factors of a product of two 1024 bit numbers or something like that)
Of course, cunning techniques will possibly reduce this number quite considerably, and it's probably really nowhere near that high, but wer're still talking about such a huge amount of time that the age of the universe seems irrelevent.
I think every European nation is socialist compared with the US.
I'm pretty certain that Norway at least has decent safeguards for the unemployed, and some form of free health care worth talking about.
In countries like Sweden and Norway, you cant sue McDonnalds for 100M$ for spilling hot coffee on yourself :)
To be fair to the person who did this, she only sued because the coffee was abnormally hot (third degree burns requiring a skin graft). McDonalds knew about the risk. She initally just wanted McDonalds to pay her medical bills. McDonalds refused.
Can an American organisation still prosecute a Norwegian national in a Norwegian court if they committed a crime in Norway that affected them.
But there's no technology involved in reading a book! What sort of a geek are you!?
I recently had a look. I decided it was a toss up between Lua and Python, depending on complexity, and who else you want to use it.
Lua is absoluetley fantastic if you just want something simple, like a programmable configuration file to call a few built in routines in a specific order, with a few ifs and an coccasional loop. Probably not for you though. It's a little too simple, and only really deals with strings and numbers.
As far as Linux goes, I'd quite like to see a crtoss compiler.
Personally, I rather liked the Watcom IDE. Not particulalry powerful, but it was nice for us "screen real estate misers" to have the compiler/project on a separate window from the code.
As far as crossbreeding goes, hopefully the Open Watcom team will realise that they can use parts of GCC if they ask the authors.
You're quite right on the DMCA. They may try an attack based on something along the lines of trade secrets if this attack is actually succesful, but all things considered, it's a pretty secure mechanism, so hopefully MS sees it this way.