You're apparently right. Slashdot has jumped the gun yet again when the words "GPL" and "loophole", "infringement", etc. were mentioned in the same sentence. Sun is not going to attract negative publicity and sour its relations with OSS for Solaris/x86 drivers...
The kids on/. seem perfectly willing to infringe Metallica's IP and turn around and defend RMS's right to protect his IP. *I* don't have the concepts confused, Anonymous Kid: your kind that selectively picks and chooses concepts and legislation to fit their self-serving interests does.
You know, I genuinely believe that the majority of/. readers aren't part of the 'jihad'. But, it certainly seems like the majority of the *posters* is. And I'd let that go and avoid broad generalization (which I agree, are bad), if/. hadn't become the mouthpiece of OSS.
Have you seen all the Wired or Cnet, or Red Herring or Upside or whatever articles that mention/. stories (or even comments) as part of OSS-stories? People are getting the idea that the/. jihad is representative of OSS. How the hell am I supposed to convince my boss to open source even a small piece of software, when they think that OSS is full of 'fanatics', 'freaks' or 'pirates'?
And I am speaking from experience too, with a very open-minded, young boss who's nothing like Dilbert's PHB. These kids do not only discredit me, but OSS itself as a practice. Thus, I shall generalize:-)...
Good points. However, I, the software author should be able to patent an algorithm or an insightful concept. Will that make it harder for OSS, or other imitators to use my insights? yes, it would. Should it? Yes, it should.
Patents should be used with care; if say Wankel hadn't patented the rotary engine, it's conceivable that more widespread use would've allowed technical and market success. OTOH, he could have died a poor(er) or less well-known man. It was his choice and he had to live with the consequences.
I am against generalized patents as much as everybody else around here; what I am criticizing is the knee-jerk reaction on/. to carpet-bomb any pro-IP (pro-patent, pro-copyright) legislation or movement on behalf of the 'cause' of OSS.
So, you're right, patents != licenses, but you wouldn't know it from the reactions around here: infringing on licenses (a form of IP protection) = bad on/.; infringing on patents/copyrights (another equally valid form of IP protection) = good on/.
The nerve! allowing people to patent intellectual work! What is wrong with them, fancy-food-eating, foreign-language-speaking Europeans? Copyright!? on software!? unbelievable!
Next thing we'll know, some long-haired freak will come up with some viral license that will restrict people's rights to their code so as to keep it open! thank God we're gonna file that petition so that hare-brained schemes like that are gonna fail and everybody will be able to do whatever they want!
...
Don't people think around here before launching into tirades against patents and laws? don't they realize not all regulation is bad? has Atlas Shrugged too much or are you just making too much money for your age?
Amen! Slashdot seems to have forgotten that some IP is good, and that this entire software industry that (dare I say it? I will...) OSS has leached from, was based on IP.
What worries me is that them kids around here are neglecting that the software industry was built around very proprietary and very profitable platforms. OSS is a great engineering practice (and I support it wholeheartedly) but its not a panacea and it's not orthogonal to making a profit off your code or IPing it.
Most importantatly them kids forget that OSS (or FS or whatever) is *dependent* on copyright law to impose their licenses, not least of which restrictive ones like the GPL.
I wish we could both voice this opinion without facing the/. jihad. Here it comes...
WTF?? "not really enough statistics to prove anything" but still on the front page, with the ever-paranoid sounding rhetorical question? where is the Geek Compound? in Area 51?
You know, what? I got me a theory: the/. crew is posting this paranoid drivel (GPL violations, Amazon paranoia, now this) to get pageviews up because half the people fall for that shit, and another hald (me included) can't believe this is what this site has sunk to. And I am helping. Of course this is because I do work for Andover.Net Inc, but that's another story.
Perhaps *I* am cynical, but why the hell is this thread titled "Amazon Refunding the *Overcharge* Experiment"? Amazon is clearly not trying to rip some people off, they are giving a *discount* to some people who would otherwise not buy from them.
What the hell is wrong with that? it's called bargaining (as in what happens in a bazaar, you know the thing that's much better than a cathedral?) and it's SOP in 80% of the world.
Amazon has done some stupid stuff, but they are not by any stretch of the imagination some big evil corporation out to assimilate the world, and I am sick and tired of the anti-Amazon bias of the stories posted here.
I am also considering buying exclusively from them from now on, just because I know I have a *chance* of being offered a discount. Because I am *that* cheap. I use Napster too.
You are obviously not a math guy. Probability is important: it is not as dangerous to fly on a commercial airplane, or say, bungee-jump out of a baloon with the bungee on fire. The probability is not 50-50 on both incidents. But, by all means, prove me wrong.
Back to Amazon: wake the hell up! retailers have coupons, promos, catalogs, a bazillion things customized to give different prices to different people so they can sell as much as they can at the highest margin that they can get. It's not a swindle by some "Microsoft drones", its called, you guessed it: Capitalism. Live with it or get out of the way.
And what the fuck is up with the "Microsoft drones" quote? does any rip on Microsoft get a 5, Insightful on/.? What on earth does this thread have to do with MS? I mean Amazon uses Perl, AFAIK, not ASP...
Do you feel the need to attack MS to look/.-cool? is that the quality of post we are moderating up these days? sheesh...
Yes, by all means, let's dump the best browser around because people can't dig a coupla dialogs to disable a convenience feature.
People who haven't found that option or didn't care to turn it off, are mostly the same people that feature was designed for. This is not an MS bug; it's a double standard.
Slashdot Mirror
You're apparently right. Slashdot has jumped the gun yet again when the words "GPL" and "loophole", "infringement", etc. were mentioned in the same sentence. Sun is not going to attract negative publicity and sour its relations with OSS for Solaris/x86 drivers...
Slashdot: We are the pot in crackpot.
(ok, that was lame...)
The kids on /. seem perfectly willing to infringe Metallica's IP and turn around and defend RMS's right to protect his IP. *I* don't have the concepts confused, Anonymous Kid: your kind that selectively picks and chooses concepts and legislation to fit their self-serving interests does.
Really, kid?
You know, I genuinely believe that the majority of /. readers aren't part of the 'jihad'. But, it certainly seems like the majority of the *posters* is. And I'd let that go and avoid broad generalization (which I agree, are bad), if /. hadn't become the mouthpiece of OSS.
/. stories (or even comments) as part of OSS-stories? People are getting the idea that the /. jihad is representative of OSS. How the hell am I supposed to convince my boss to open source even a small piece of software, when they think that OSS is full of 'fanatics', 'freaks' or 'pirates'?
:-)...
Have you seen all the Wired or Cnet, or Red Herring or Upside or whatever articles that mention
And I am speaking from experience too, with a very open-minded, young boss who's nothing like Dilbert's PHB. These kids do not only discredit me, but OSS itself as a practice. Thus, I shall generalize
Good points. However, I, the software author should be able to patent an algorithm or an insightful concept. Will that make it harder for OSS, or other imitators to use my insights? yes, it would. Should it? Yes, it should.
/. to carpet-bomb any pro-IP (pro-patent, pro-copyright) legislation or movement on behalf of the 'cause' of OSS.
/.; infringing on patents/copyrights (another equally valid form of IP protection) = good on /.
Patents should be used with care; if say Wankel hadn't patented the rotary engine, it's conceivable that more widespread use would've allowed technical and market success. OTOH, he could have died a poor(er) or less well-known man. It was his choice and he had to live with the consequences.
I am against generalized patents as much as everybody else around here; what I am criticizing is the knee-jerk reaction on
So, you're right, patents != licenses, but you wouldn't know it from the reactions around here: infringing on licenses (a form of IP protection) = bad on
The nerve! allowing people to patent intellectual work! What is wrong with them, fancy-food-eating, foreign-language-speaking Europeans? Copyright!? on software!? unbelievable!
Next thing we'll know, some long-haired freak will come up with some viral license that will restrict people's rights to their code so as to keep it open! thank God we're gonna file that petition so that hare-brained schemes like that are gonna fail and everybody will be able to do whatever they want!
...
Don't people think around here before launching into tirades against patents and laws? don't they realize not all regulation is bad? has Atlas Shrugged too much or are you just making too much money for your age?
Amen! Slashdot seems to have forgotten that some IP is good, and that this entire software industry that (dare I say it? I will...) OSS has leached from, was based on IP.
/. jihad. Here it comes...
What worries me is that them kids around here are neglecting that the software industry was built around very proprietary and very profitable platforms. OSS is a great engineering practice (and I support it wholeheartedly) but its not a panacea and it's not orthogonal to making a profit off your code or IPing it.
Most importantatly them kids forget that OSS (or FS or whatever) is *dependent* on copyright law to impose their licenses, not least of which restrictive ones like the GPL.
I wish we could both voice this opinion without facing the
Oh yeah, like that hasn't been done ...
News for Conspirators, Theories that matter.
/. crew is posting this paranoid drivel (GPL violations, Amazon paranoia, now this) to get pageviews up because half the people fall for that shit, and another hald (me included) can't believe this is what this site has sunk to. And I am helping. Of course this is because I do work for Andover.Net Inc, but that's another story.
WTF?? "not really enough statistics to prove anything" but still on the front page, with the ever-paranoid sounding rhetorical question? where is the Geek Compound? in Area 51?
You know, what? I got me a theory: the
...so that he can convince Compaq that since they are using GPL software they will also have to GPL some hardware to him (Alpha cluster most likely).
I could use one of those new-fangled iPaqs myself. I hear they ported Windows to that thing now.
Perhaps *I* am cynical, but why the hell is this thread titled "Amazon Refunding the *Overcharge* Experiment"? Amazon is clearly not trying to rip some people off, they are giving a *discount* to some people who would otherwise not buy from them.
What the hell is wrong with that? it's called bargaining (as in what happens in a bazaar, you know the thing that's much better than a cathedral?) and it's SOP in 80% of the world.
Amazon has done some stupid stuff, but they are not by any stretch of the imagination some big evil corporation out to assimilate the world, and I am sick and tired of the anti-Amazon bias of the stories posted here.
I am also considering buying exclusively from them from now on, just because I know I have a *chance* of being offered a discount. Because I am *that* cheap. I use Napster too.
You are obviously not a math guy. Probability is important: it is not as dangerous to fly on a commercial airplane, or say, bungee-jump out of a baloon with the bungee on fire. The probability is not 50-50 on both incidents. But, by all means, prove me wrong. Back to Amazon: wake the hell up! retailers have coupons, promos, catalogs, a bazillion things customized to give different prices to different people so they can sell as much as they can at the highest margin that they can get. It's not a swindle by some "Microsoft drones", its called, you guessed it: Capitalism. Live with it or get out of the way. And what the fuck is up with the "Microsoft drones" quote? does any rip on Microsoft get a 5, Insightful on /.? What on earth does this thread have to do with MS? I mean Amazon uses Perl, AFAIK, not ASP...
Do you feel the need to attack MS to look /.-cool? is that the quality of post we are moderating up these days? sheesh...
"Did linuxconf just change that BACK?"
"Thank God I am not using Windows".
"What the hell does this crap in sendmail.cf *mean*?"
"Thank God I am not using Windows".
"Now, find is right here in my path; where the %#%^# is its man page?"
"Thank God I am not using Windows".
"Oh, there it is. What the %#*@! does this %#$# *mean*?"
"Thank God I am not using Windows".
"It has to be something right here in /etc..."
"Thank God I am not using Windows".
"Why isn't there a Control Panel, like in Windows? Where is the help when I hit F1? Why do I need a book to use a desktop OS? the humanity!"
.
.
.
Yes, by all means, let's dump the best browser around because people can't dig a coupla dialogs to disable a convenience feature. People who haven't found that option or didn't care to turn it off, are mostly the same people that feature was designed for. This is not an MS bug; it's a double standard.