Cringley writes an excellent article here...
"this judgment makes no effort to deprive the company of the fruits of that abuse. This is interesting because the point of Federal anti-trust law is two-fold, to prevent or correct abuses and to deprive from the abusers the benefit -- called the fruit -- of their crimes."
Why did the judge not punish M$? A fine was certainly in order. It is baffling. Imagine how the DOJ attorneys who worked this case feel about the empty plate served them by the judge. Meanwhile, the guilty Bill Gates keeps all $40 billion of his illegally acquired loot. Money that will aid him in beating down future competition.
Re:How closely are the casino's being watched?
on
Net Vegas
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· Score: 1
IIRC in an investment study I did the casinos had a 40% take from gambling. Now I could have been wrong or had bad information. But no way are they operating those palaces on 2%.
I would certainly like to hear from someone who knows.
Here is Harrah's profile on yahoo.
They have an overall operating margin of 17.5% which would be in line with 40% margin on gambling.
Maybe all the a**holes posting are totally feeling f**ked by the corrupt m$ ruling of yesterday and need to take it out on the someone. Naaaagh... they're just a**holes. I for one find this hack exciting because it demos the power of OS. In a place where they have to bust their asses to find pci cards and their monitors are too valuable to remove from their cases. It's just a demo folks. And they did it in Pakistan. Not Redmond.
I think the real point of this "story" was to sell the idea that it was/is ok for artists not to make money (net) from industry cd sales. That they would make it up on the back end. A very few do. e.g. a friend of mine is on the current George Strait tour. At a large venue Strait's people can sell over $500,000 in SWAG. All cash. This does not include ticket sales or food/beverage concessions. Another friend of mine considers a road tour at a few small venues where he sells 100 cd's (burned at his house) as a success. And he had several albums released on major labels and never made a dime.
Last week before the new netbroadcast rules took effect there were easily >100 netcast choices at icecast. There are now, as I look, 3 streams and 32 listeners. Sad. The little guys are knocked off.
Ok. I'll bite. Colin, the creator who giveth to open source here, has been receiving payment for his work on LOTR. There will be no shortage of artists working on projects for pay. In fact if the tools (software) are "free" it opens up participation for more people to create more art products for which they are paid. Open source simply moves the marble from one pocket to another. The tools of creation are improved and built as needed by participants and contributed back to the community. It is not..."a world where *nobody* gets paid for writing software!" It is a world made richer by the networked community of creating open sourcers.
I was denied a trademark for a made up word that was a "cute" derivative of a real word. The trademark office's reasoning was that I could claim "ownership" of that common word. The word was gadget. I was denied Gadgette's. So if nissan is actually a common word then perhaps Nissan has (or should have) an invalid trademark. Certainly not one that should apply beyond automotive. Of course if I had had more money for more lawyers...
Microsoft, a convicted monopolist, runs on something approaching 95% of desktop computers. It is seen by the rest of the world as a U.S. company.(not a strong endorsement in many quarters)Its code is closed, not open and is therefor (my opinion) insecure in that no one but Microsoft (and maybe the U.S. gov't) knows the back doors. What government in their right minds would willingly choose such a platform to run their future on. Especially given the availablity of "free", open software capable of doing the job. Witness Germany and KDE. So the question is... Has Microsoft reached its apogee? Has it seen its best days from a growth and profitability standpoint? & if so is this a good or bad thing for IT & Silicon Valley?
You are correct, sir. And to go even further the RIAA wants vigilante powers granted to it so that it may circumvent the US concept of due process and decide who is guilty... acting as judge, jury and executioner as it systematically breaks into computers and destroys private property. If you think someone broke into your home and stole from you do you break into their home and steal from them? Not with the protection of the courts you don't. But the RIAA wants that power granted to them through legislation they purchased from congressional representatives and senators
"We must save the internet from its founding myth that it is good for democracy and is open and cannot be regulated." Yes. There it is. They know better than you what you should be done with the net.
AFAIK this is an acceptable business practice to the feds and state governments. Is it price fixing? Of course not. That would be illegal. The price is just set at a fixed point. (wink wink) But that is NOT a conspiracy. Just some Lone Nut in marketing.
God this is entertaining entertainment.I have noticed at least two tv ad campaigns that feature consumers downloading and burning music. Implying it is a cool and totally normal thing to do. I think the majors are fighting a war they have already lost.
So the owners of Godzilla have gone after the Mozilla guys for trademark infringement. Wonder if CoS might go after the creators of Xena the Princess Warrior r.e. Xenu. Just wondering...
I can never understand why so many glibly recite the shibolith "driving is a privilege" The use and enjoyment of any public creation is certainly a right until one proves by behavior to be unfit to engage in that right.
Exactly so. It also seems to me if they are giving something away then there is no contractual relationship because there was not an exchange of value.
This is getting ridiculous. Bar code readers have been around almost forever. What are these guys trying to protect. Their customers want as many users as possible to place orders with these devices. So why slow down the spread of usage.
If you give me a claw hammer and I crack nuts with it; have I violated any of your rights?
According to my count the phrase "fair use" appeared 69 times in the defendants brief. "Fair Use" did not appear once in the plaintiff's brief.
It's not surprising.
The judge is wrong. They often are. Ebay invites the public to shop at their site. It is not private. The robot is simply a reporter reporting the news of prices at this public-invited store. This is a freedom of press issue. It may be inconvenient for Ebay to have their prices reported but many things are inconvenient in business. (competitors come to mind.) Furthermore to those that may argue Bidders Edge is a business competitor and as such should not be treated as the press consider e.g. Disney. Owner of ABC News. Disney is in many businesses including gift/collectible stores and is still a member of the press.
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Cringley writes an excellent article here... "this judgment makes no effort to deprive the company of the fruits of that abuse. This is interesting because the point of Federal anti-trust law is two-fold, to prevent or correct abuses and to deprive from the abusers the benefit -- called the fruit -- of their crimes." Why did the judge not punish M$? A fine was certainly in order. It is baffling. Imagine how the DOJ attorneys who worked this case feel about the empty plate served them by the judge. Meanwhile, the guilty Bill Gates keeps all $40 billion of his illegally acquired loot. Money that will aid him in beating down future competition.
IIRC in an investment study I did the casinos had a 40% take from gambling. Now I could have been wrong or had bad information. But no way are they operating those palaces on 2%. I would certainly like to hear from someone who knows. Here is Harrah's profile on yahoo. They have an overall operating margin of 17.5% which would be in line with 40% margin on gambling.
Maybe all the a**holes posting are totally feeling f**ked by the corrupt m$ ruling of yesterday and need to take it out on the someone. Naaaagh... they're just a**holes.
I for one find this hack exciting because it demos the power of OS. In a place where they have to bust their asses to find pci cards and their monitors are too valuable to remove from their cases. It's just a demo folks. And they did it in Pakistan. Not Redmond.
I think the real point of this "story" was to sell the idea that it was/is ok for artists not to make money (net) from industry cd sales. That they would make it up on the back end. A very few do.
e.g. a friend of mine is on the current George Strait tour. At a large venue Strait's people can sell over $500,000 in SWAG. All cash. This does not include ticket sales or food/beverage concessions.
Another friend of mine considers a road tour at a few small venues where he sells 100 cd's (burned at his house) as a success. And he had several albums released on major labels and never made a dime.
Last week before the new netbroadcast rules took effect there were easily >100 netcast choices at icecast. There are now, as I look, 3 streams and 32 listeners.
Sad.
The little guys are knocked off.
Ok. I'll bite. ..."a world where *nobody* gets paid for writing software!" It is a world made richer by the networked community of creating open sourcers.
Colin, the creator who giveth to open source here, has been receiving payment for his work on LOTR. There will be no shortage of artists working on projects for pay. In fact if the tools (software) are "free" it opens up participation for more people to create more art products for which they are paid. Open source simply moves the marble from one pocket to another. The tools of creation are improved and built as needed by participants and contributed back to the community.
It is not
I was denied a trademark for a made up word that was a "cute" derivative of a real word. The trademark office's reasoning was that I could claim "ownership" of that common word. The word was gadget. I was denied Gadgette's.
So if nissan is actually a common word then perhaps Nissan has (or should have) an invalid trademark. Certainly not one that should apply beyond automotive.
Of course if I had had more money for more lawyers...
Microsoft, a convicted monopolist, runs on something approaching 95% of desktop computers. It is seen by the rest of the world as a U.S. company.(not a strong endorsement in many quarters)Its code is closed, not open and is therefor (my opinion) insecure in that no one but Microsoft (and maybe the U.S. gov't) knows the back doors. What government in their right minds would willingly choose such a platform to run their future on. Especially given the availablity of "free", open software capable of doing the job. Witness Germany and KDE.
So the question is... Has Microsoft reached its apogee? Has it seen its best days from a growth and profitability standpoint? & if so is this a good or bad thing for IT & Silicon Valley?
You are correct, sir. And to go even further the RIAA wants vigilante powers granted to it so that it may circumvent the US concept of due process and decide who is guilty... acting as judge, jury and executioner as it systematically breaks into computers and destroys private property.
If you think someone broke into your home and stole from you do you break into their home and steal from them? Not with the protection of the courts you don't. But the RIAA wants that power granted to them through legislation they purchased from congressional representatives and senators
Gee! I'm a Libra myself. My birthday is Saturday. When you say "DEATH TO LIBRALISM" does that mean you want to kill me?
"We must save the internet from its founding myth that it is good for democracy and is open and cannot be regulated."
Yes. There it is. They know better than you what you should be done with the net.
AFAIK this is an acceptable business practice to the feds and state governments. Is it price fixing? Of course not. That would be illegal. The price is just set at a fixed point. (wink wink) But that is NOT a conspiracy. Just some Lone Nut in marketing.
God this is entertaining entertainment.I have noticed at least two tv ad campaigns that feature consumers downloading and burning music. Implying it is a cool and totally normal thing to do. I think the majors are fighting a war they have already lost.
So the owners of Godzilla have gone after the Mozilla guys for trademark infringement. Wonder if CoS might go after the creators of Xena the Princess Warrior r.e. Xenu.
Just wondering...
I can never understand why so many glibly recite the shibolith "driving is a privilege" The use and enjoyment of any public creation is certainly a right until one proves by behavior to be unfit to engage in that right.
Exactly so. It also seems to me if they are giving something away then there is no contractual relationship because there was not an exchange of value. This is getting ridiculous. Bar code readers have been around almost forever. What are these guys trying to protect. Their customers want as many users as possible to place orders with these devices. So why slow down the spread of usage. If you give me a claw hammer and I crack nuts with it; have I violated any of your rights?
According to my count the phrase "fair use" appeared 69 times in the defendants brief. "Fair Use" did not appear once in the plaintiff's brief. It's not surprising.
The judge is wrong. They often are. Ebay invites the public to shop at their site. It is not private. The robot is simply a reporter reporting the news of prices at this public-invited store. This is a freedom of press issue. It may be inconvenient for Ebay to have their prices reported but many things are inconvenient in business. (competitors come to mind.) Furthermore to those that may argue Bidders Edge is a business competitor and as such should not be treated as the press consider e.g. Disney. Owner of ABC News. Disney is in many businesses including gift/collectible stores and is still a member of the press.