It would be interesting to review the case law to see if there would be ground for a lawsuit. In some states, such as California, private for-profit businesses are not allowed to exclude people on the basis of sexual orientation. In most states, you can't turn down a customer on the basis of race or gender. This really goes back to the civil rights movement and people not being served lunch at certain establishments because of their race.
Would being a part of a gay guild be considered protected activity? What about identifying oneself as LGBT? It might be that the speech act (a "gay guild") and identity are linked enough that it would fall under the realm of the law. A similar line of reasoning is used by the military in excluding gays and lesbians -- saying one is gay = being gay = doing gay activities = creating a problem for the military = expulsion. In this case it would be doing gay activities = being gay = making you a part of a protected class.
I agree. I think the book publishers are trying to eliminate the acceptable fair use and resale rights for books.
In many cases, book access control software eliminates the 'first sale' doctrine whereby you can legally resell or give away a book you have purchased. It also prohibits loaning the book to a friend, which has traditionally been legal.
I think electronic books need to be defined as books, not as software. The content, the text, should be treated seperately from the software program and subject to fair use rights, the first sale doctrine, and other similar precedents and laws.
The reader software itself could be defined as software, and perhaps put under the GPL, a non-commerical license, or sold for a small charge.
After being very confused for a long time by the DNSO page, I think I've figured out how to participate in the DNSO elections:)
First, it looks like you are supposed to join the General Assembly of the DNSO. You do that by signing up for any of their mailing lists. An easy, low volume one is their announcement list:
majordomo@dnso.org with the words subscribe announce in the body of your message.
You can also read a statement from James Love, since he looks like a good candidate. His page was linked to from the Civil Society Internet Forum, which seems to have lots of good information about stuff having to do with internet governance... so you might want to check them out as well.
It then looks like the only real "vote" you have is to endorse a candidate and then the Names Council makes the final decision. See the instructions for endorsing a candidate to endorse the candidate of your choice.
Somehow, that wasn't as easy as I would have hoped. At least it didn't take a month of waiting in the mail for a PIN number to arrive. Have fun:)
Re:Have you joined the EFF
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Lawsuits Suck
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Another organization you might want to take a look at is CPSR, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.
Re:Big old grain of salt
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Lawsuits Suck
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If you go to the so-called parody site, and look at the bottom of it, you will note actual footnotes.
Common Cause, "Why Senior Citizens Should Care about Campaign Finance Reform," November 22, 1999: http://www.commoncause.org/publications/nov99/seni or.html;
"Big Money, Big Benefits," Baltimore Sun, July 19, 1998: http://www.commoncause.org/publications/072498.htm ;
"Pocketbook Politics: How Special-Interest Money Hurts the American Consumer," February 24, 1998: http://www.commoncause.org/publications/pocketbook 1.htm;
"Return on Investment: The Hidden Story of Soft Money, Corporate Welfare and the 1997 Budget & Tax Deal," November 12, 1997: http://www.commoncause.org/publications/return.htm .
Sometimes the truth is scarier than fiction.
Watch out, you might get sucked in when you go to take your data to be processed by the black hole computer. That would really stink. I think I'll stick with my PC for now.
Are there any predictions for how large the average black hole should be? This might not make a very practical computer...
Get a sympathetic Member of Congress to read it into the Congressional Record. The THOMAS site (thomas.loc.gov) from the library of Congress prints the congressional record online. Imagine the MPAA suing the Library of Congress for infringement:)
I just bought the third edition, and it seems to be a pretty comprehensive overview and survey of the various things you might want to do with Linux and how to accomplish them.
Now just to finish the book...:)
It seems really unfair to have a party sponsored by this site in a venue that has age restrictions...
There must be plenty of slashdot readers that are underage...?
Communism is approximately four inches to the left of Nader's campaign.
It seems as though Communism is a system with no government; whereas Nader seems to be advocated increased government regulation of corporations. It seems as though corporate accountability-- done through democratic means-- improves democracy, whereas communism appears to be an anti-democratic system. I think you are missing the distinction between liberalism, socialism, communism (marx's idea), and communism (in russia)...
And out of curiosity, how does the fact that Ralph Nader is a rich, old, white guy (worth some $36 million) fit the belief system of all his leftist supporters?
Along with most of the people who have been President in this country, yes. Notice, for example, that he has a women vice-presidential candidate, however.
Also, could anyone who doesn't take lots of campaign contributions from special interests run without large personal wealth?
Napster is basically a service that lets you locate a file. Since the actual sharing is simply between two people, it seems to fall into that grey area of people exchanging music which each other... which has gone on since audio tapes were first invented...
If my friend calls me up and asks me if I know anyone who has song X, and I tell him to call person B to get it, am I legally liable for infringement of copyright? This is what Napster is doing...
Re:The above comment missed the point
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Hacker Crackdown?
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One problem with the bomb analogy. Computer software is basically a mathematical algorithm, not an invention. Can you imagine Newton and Leibniz being held reponsible for what's done with the calculus?
Programmers should be held ethically responsible for what they produce. That should be sufficient.
Slashdot Mirror
It would be interesting to review the case law to see if there would be ground for a lawsuit. In some states, such as California, private for-profit businesses are not allowed to exclude people on the basis of sexual orientation. In most states, you can't turn down a customer on the basis of race or gender. This really goes back to the civil rights movement and people not being served lunch at certain establishments because of their race.
Would being a part of a gay guild be considered protected activity? What about identifying oneself as LGBT? It might be that the speech act (a "gay guild") and identity are linked enough that it would fall under the realm of the law. A similar line of reasoning is used by the military in excluding gays and lesbians -- saying one is gay = being gay = doing gay activities = creating a problem for the military = expulsion. In this case it would be doing gay activities = being gay = making you a part of a protected class.
Any thoughts?
The problem is that any licensed DVD player software for linux can not be placed under the GPL.
In many cases, book access control software eliminates the 'first sale' doctrine whereby you can legally resell or give away a book you have purchased. It also prohibits loaning the book to a friend, which has traditionally been legal.
I think electronic books need to be defined as books, not as software. The content, the text, should be treated seperately from the software program and subject to fair use rights, the first sale doctrine, and other similar precedents and laws.
The reader software itself could be defined as software, and perhaps put under the GPL, a non-commerical license, or sold for a small charge.
First, it looks like you are supposed to join the General Assembly of the DNSO. You do that by signing up for any of their mailing lists. An easy, low volume one is their announcement list: majordomo@dnso.org with the words subscribe announce in the body of your message.
You then go to list of nominees to review the nominees.
You can also read a statement from James Love, since he looks like a good candidate. His page was linked to from the Civil Society Internet Forum, which seems to have lots of good information about stuff having to do with internet governance... so you might want to check them out as well.
It then looks like the only real "vote" you have is to endorse a candidate and then the Names Council makes the final decision. See the instructions for endorsing a candidate to endorse the candidate of your choice.
Somehow, that wasn't as easy as I would have hoped. At least it didn't take a month of waiting in the mail for a PIN number to arrive. Have fun :)
One recent project that many people might be aware of is the Civil Society Democracy Project, which publishes the Cyber-Federalist newsletter, among other things.
If you go to the so-called parody site, and look at the bottom of it, you will note actual footnotes. Common Cause, "Why Senior Citizens Should Care about Campaign Finance Reform," November 22, 1999: http://www.commoncause.org/publications/nov99/seni or.html;
"Big Money, Big Benefits," Baltimore Sun, July 19, 1998: http://www.commoncause.org/publications/072498.htm ;
"Pocketbook Politics: How Special-Interest Money Hurts the American Consumer," February 24, 1998: http://www.commoncause.org/publications/pocketbook 1.htm;
"Return on Investment: The Hidden Story of Soft Money, Corporate Welfare and the 1997 Budget & Tax Deal," November 12, 1997: http://www.commoncause.org/publications/return.htm .
Sometimes the truth is scarier than fiction.
Watch out, you might get sucked in when you go to take your data to be processed by the black hole computer. That would really stink. I think I'll stick with my PC for now. Are there any predictions for how large the average black hole should be? This might not make a very practical computer...
Get a sympathetic Member of Congress to read it into the Congressional Record. The THOMAS site (thomas.loc.gov) from the library of Congress prints the congressional record online. Imagine the MPAA suing the Library of Congress for infringement :)
I just bought the third edition, and it seems to be a pretty comprehensive overview and survey of the various things you might want to do with Linux and how to accomplish them. Now just to finish the book... :)
It seems really unfair to have a party sponsored by this site in a venue that has age restrictions... There must be plenty of slashdot readers that are underage...?
Communism is approximately four inches to the left of Nader's campaign. It seems as though Communism is a system with no government; whereas Nader seems to be advocated increased government regulation of corporations. It seems as though corporate accountability-- done through democratic means-- improves democracy, whereas communism appears to be an anti-democratic system. I think you are missing the distinction between liberalism, socialism, communism (marx's idea), and communism (in russia)... And out of curiosity, how does the fact that Ralph Nader is a rich, old, white guy (worth some $36 million) fit the belief system of all his leftist supporters? Along with most of the people who have been President in this country, yes. Notice, for example, that he has a women vice-presidential candidate, however. Also, could anyone who doesn't take lots of campaign contributions from special interests run without large personal wealth?
Napster is basically a service that lets you locate a file. Since the actual sharing is simply between two people, it seems to fall into that grey area of people exchanging music which each other... which has gone on since audio tapes were first invented... If my friend calls me up and asks me if I know anyone who has song X, and I tell him to call person B to get it, am I legally liable for infringement of copyright? This is what Napster is doing...
One problem with the bomb analogy. Computer software is basically a mathematical algorithm, not an invention. Can you imagine Newton and Leibniz being held reponsible for what's done with the calculus? Programmers should be held ethically responsible for what they produce. That should be sufficient.