Tribes 2 hasn't been cracked as far as I know--you use your CD key to get a username online, and nothing prevents you from making multiple installations.
Well, I bet you could buy another truck of roughly the same model as a UPS truck (many delivery trucks fit this description) and paint it brown. Putting the logo on would be more difficult.
And I know you can buy trucks like these--I work at a county highway department (summer job), and we recently auctioned off our 10-15 year old "bus", which, painted brown, could pass as a UPS truck.
If the software product or hardware product reaches end of life and the current company does not develop a follow-on product with corresponding upgrade offer to registered customers, then the source code [software and firmware and documentation in digital format] will be sent to registered software and hardware customers, and, the source code will declared open source and offered to all via internet. If the initial development company is sold, source code will be offered and sent, if requested, to registered software and hardware owners. If the initial development company ceases to exist, source code will be sent to registered software and hardware owners, and, the source code will be declared open source and offered to all via internet. If an operating system integer upgrade [v1.X -> v2.X] requires the user to purchase new operating system software or hardware, then the source code will be offered to registered customers.
The source code, in that case, should be released under the GPL, which states that those who have access to the binaries must have access to the source. If the company is bought out, the new company should not have to host source code for everyone on the internet--let the users who had initially bought the software decide to do that
Failure to make source code available when a product reaches end of life or other conditions listed above will result in the top five officers of the initial development company (and the top five of the purchasing company, if a company purchase is involved) [CEO, COO, CIO, CFO, etc] being fined no less than $1,000,000 each, not payable by insurance company or current company; and will result in their forfeiture of all of the monies the executives received from their respective companies; and, will result in their receiving three years in prison without possibility of parole.
Let's just say they're required to do so. If they do not, someone will bring suit, and a judge will order them to do so. If they do not, they will be held in contempt of court until they do so.
Also, reverse engineering is not illegal anywhere. In the EU it is a right, and in the US it is generally a breach of contract (assuming the contract was agreed upon by both parties before the purchase was made).
some strong feelings to hold companies fully accountable for losses caused by their products' defects
As the owner of a small software business, I feel comfortable with the fact that whilst I cannot sue Microsoft's ass if something goes terribly wrong; neither can my customers sue my ass.
Well, when you mention the features to your customers, you should present a disclaimer saying that the features "only worked on our test cases at the times they were tested". My CIS profs have been cramming that down my throat.
Reverse engineering software in order to modify it or sell or give away an alternative is illegal.
Reverse engineering has nothing to do with modifying the original program. You appear to be saying that, for example, if I want to write a word processor, I cannot look at Word, WordPerfect, etc. to see what features they have that I might want to include in my word processor. (How do you think Microsoft came up with the ideas for Word and Excel?)
I believe what you are referring to in your second paragraph is reverse compiling. By reverse engineering something, you merely look at what it does and implement something that does the same thing. You are in no way standing on the backs of engineering paid for by the original company--the original company came up with an idea and paid people to implement it. What should stop another person from seeing that implementation and making another implementation.
For instance, many radio and TV ads have disclaimers at the end. Software companies can put the equivalent of those disclaimers in whatever medium they're using to advertise.
The US generally does claim jurisdiction over the whole world, but then, Google is a US company, Google has no presence in India, so it could be assumed that google.co.in is hosted in the US.
With Microsoft's philosophy, "it's a feature--not a bug(R)". Mozilla, Konqueror and their descendents break up those lines automatically, so slashdot's doing it is redundant for people who don't use IE.
1) Activision refuses to let anyone but FilePlanet host the demo. 2) People outcry publicly. 3) Stories about the problem cover the web--free publicity. 4) Activision relents, making themselves look good. 5) Profit!!!
Slashdot Mirror
If they require it in MS Word format, fax it to them.
Don't forget VLC. I haven't gotten the "LAN" part of it to work yet, but it works great simply as a video player.
Tribes 2 hasn't been cracked as far as I know--you use your CD key to get a username online, and nothing prevents you from making multiple installations.
Well, I'd assume Japan has some one-way roads, so it would make sense that the Japanese would anticipate parallel parking on both sides.
Well, I bet you could buy another truck of roughly the same model as a UPS truck (many delivery trucks fit this description) and paint it brown. Putting the logo on would be more difficult.
And I know you can buy trucks like these--I work at a county highway department (summer job), and we recently auctioned off our 10-15 year old "bus", which, painted brown, could pass as a UPS truck.
Buy a UPS truck. You can park those things anywhere.
Yea. I do disagree with the point made in the software bill of rights.
Well, I'm sure my school is one of those select schools.
I posted a question in the forum.
Or the /. geek: "Does it run Linux?"
Also, reverse engineering is not illegal anywhere. In the EU it is a right, and in the US it is generally a breach of contract (assuming the contract was agreed upon by both parties before the purchase was made).
And the US's common law is supposed to be based on the UK's. Shame we didn't include that.
I believe what you are referring to in your second paragraph is reverse compiling. By reverse engineering something, you merely look at what it does and implement something that does the same thing. You are in no way standing on the backs of engineering paid for by the original company--the original company came up with an idea and paid people to implement it. What should stop another person from seeing that implementation and making another implementation.
For instance, many radio and TV ads have disclaimers at the end. Software companies can put the equivalent of those disclaimers in whatever medium they're using to advertise.
That is merely an indirect result of what most people on /. do.
The US generally does claim jurisdiction over the whole world, but then, Google is a US company, Google has no presence in India, so it could be assumed that google.co.in is hosted in the US.
And Slash is made to scale.
With Microsoft's philosophy, "it's a feature--not a bug(R)". Mozilla, Konqueror and their descendents break up those lines automatically, so slashdot's doing it is redundant for people who don't use IE.
1) Activision refuses to let anyone but FilePlanet host the demo.
2) People outcry publicly.
3) Stories about the problem cover the web--free publicity.
4) Activision relents, making themselves look good.
5) Profit!!!
(I know I missed the "???" step--I'm sorry.)
Don't let them steal your red stapler.