My ISP (CTC) started doing this on my static dialup without warning. I noticed because 1) eBay pages suddenly required reloading in order to update (ie, if I quit the browser, and then went back to a dynamic eBay page, it was the same as before unless I reloaded the page)... and then 2) I noticed when connecting to another machine, the address that showed up in the logs was not mine!
Anyway, after poking the machine I discovered it was a Cisco something or other. I also discovered that if you sent a malformed or invalid request, it would STOP transparent proxying for a few minutes!
So the solution I came up with was to telnet port 80 someplace (didn't matter where, because the proxy would pick it up) and type "PLEASE DON'T PROXY ME" and close the connection and then it would leave me alone for a few minutes.
Most of the time I left it on as the proxying seemed to speed up the usual day-to-day surfing. But you might want to try a script to do this automatically. Probably this is just an option the engineers forgot to turn off (I believe by law they must turn off all customer-friendly services:-).
After a few weeks of doing this, and making a few phone calls, the proxy mysteriously went away. Maybe they took my static dialup off the list, or they decided to do it for everybody. Whatever. I've been using Squid so it's pointless for me anyway.
Why shouldn't shareware authors expect to make a profit? Because you say so?
In a free market, nobody should "expect" to make a profit. If a shareware author's chosen activity doesn't make him enough money, he should find something else.
A shareware author shouldn't look at how many copies are in use, they should ask themselves, of all the things I could do to create income, am I getting the best return by writing shareware? If Yes, continue writing shareware, if No, then do something else.
Of course, when you actually check the number of copies, most shareware authors will find that people are using the software without paying.
The same is true for music as well. I read a sound bite somewhere that 2 albums were copies for every 1 that was sold. This was BEFORE the "MP3 (r)evolution". Yet the music business survives. Because they have nice profit margins.
Now, I don't fault people for trying to get MORE money for the same amount of work. But if they don't succeed, there isn't much else to do, because they're not entitled to it in the first place! The harsh reality of free markets.
the computer is gradually becoming the instrument itself.
Gee, considering much of my CD collection has been computer music for almost a decade, I'm glad to see a mainstream article about it!
Computing machines have been used for music for quite some time. Other posters have mentioned the software like Reaktor, Absynth, FruityLoops, Max/MSP, Reason, etc, etc. Here are some random artists you can check out:
Richard Devine
Uses Reaktor on several computers to create complex industrial electronic beats. His stuff is pretty unbelievable when you listen close to all the detail. He's written music for Nike ads recently so he's fairly accessible.
kid 606: An up-and-coming laptop punk. He's written silly stuff and serious stuff too and done at lot for the live electronic scene. He pretty much uses only Reaktor on a laptop as well. Look for the track " Catstep/My Kitten/Catnap Vatstep DSP Remix By Hrvatski" on your favorite music-sharing service, off his "Down With the Scene" album, you won't be disappointed! Or at least you'll laugh at the singing robot voice.
Autechre are the masters of abstract electronic music (imho). For the past few albums, they've slowly gravitated toward generative music (i.e., write a program to write the music). They use Max/MSP and other stuff (not entirely computers all the time). Their last album Confield is very abstract and almost unlistenable. But fascinating.
Taylor Deupree and his 12k label from New York are into the minimalist side of things, very minimal electronic noise, very art-school stuff. Some of 12k's stuff combines very well with the noise a computer makes, which I like to play when working so that my computer's fan noise is "remixed". Pretty cool if you're into the abstract. They use all sorts of software for their art.
Another Electronic Musician is a guy in the California scene who makes nice unpretencious (sp) electronic beats with Reaktor and other stuff.
Grooves magazine is one of many independent magazines on electronic music. If you see an issue at your local leftfield bookstore, flip through it. They review music software too.
There's plenty of academics into electronic music too. Paul Lansky is one off the top of my head. Several music schools have electronic music programs that use a lot of this software too (Berkeley uses Reason I believe).
So, there is a pretty huge scene for electronic music. There are plenty of young musicians who have chosen the laptop as their primary instrument, and don't even think twice about it.
You have any URLs about that? I remember a product many years ago that would read strips from a piece of paper with a few K of data. It included software to print and a few magazines distributed programs that way until it went the way of the:#::Cue:?#:Cat::// (whatever the correct punctuation is on that thing). Sounds like a good time to bring that tech back to life!!
Okay, if they tax all media, then I'll get all my music for free. A $2 data CDR is still cheaper than a $19 CD. And since the "artists" (a funny way to spell "record labels", isn't it?) are getting paid (apparently, this is very important), I would feel ZERO moral obligation to EVER buy a CD again (well actually I don't really feel obligated now, but I do it anyway, with a tax I would feel obligated to NOT buy any more music.. why pay twice?).
And OF COURSE every little indie label run out of somebody's bedroom with six releases is going to get their fair share, right?
Sounds good. Music as a public good, lets pay with public funds, and the record labels can go to hell.
Which of course isn't how it will work, the record labels will get fatter and more corrupt as they feast on the blood of the proletariate, most indie record labels will continue to operate at a loss, and CDs will grow to $24 to combat the extra "piracy" brought about by the tax, but we can pretend that life is fair...
I have a shirt that can track how many days I've gone without bathing, using a "handsfree background olfactory indicator". High tech stuff, really.
Also, I haven't tried it myself, but I think past the 30-day point it is indeed actually capable of bending light waves. It could probably also melt steel. Though due to the olfactory indicator mentioned above, it isn't exactly what I'd call "invisible"...
Can I have a million dollar grant for this invention? Erm, yeah, I'll understand if you don't want to deliver the check in person.
So, Paypal has the same opportunity to make profits with your money the way banks do, by investing it.
Sounds like an insurance company too, doesn't it? They keep a "float" of other people's money until they need to pay something out (ie, a customer withdraws their money). The rest of the time they have the money to play with.
I think I agree with the FDIC, PayPal is NOT a bank. But they DO need to be regulated. They need to be regulated as a "payment service". If the regulations haven't been written yet, somebody needs to do it.
Central planning of production and distribution, central planning of consumption -- aren't they really the same thing?
Well, interestingly, the way I see it, for "intellectual property" there is always an infinite supply of a given good, so it's impossible to change production....hmm..
What are you saying, Citizen? You're not meeting your consumption quota? You're not upgrading when Central Planning issues Upgrade Orders?
You're denying Microsoft their much-deserved Software Revenue! You're denying the Government their much-deserved Tax Revenue! How unAmerican! General Gates would not be pleased!
You must upgrade immediately. Our helpful Upgrade Enforcers will assist you in all aspects (or will tie you to your chair if you are uncooperative). The new version of Office will be glorious, Citizen!
(You know, the Communists had it all wrong. The best way to manage society is through central planning of Consumption!)
an award-winning Linux distribution that is a solid competitor to both UNIX and Window$
Window$? Very unprofessional.
All other trademarks are copyrighted by their respective owners.
Trademarks are copyrighted? What does that mean??
Well, anyway, I hope they don't go under, as I was thinking of switching from Red Hat to Mandrake on a new P4 (I always buy my Linux distros to support the companies, and so should you).
Select an MP3 (Metallica is usually the best choice)
Create a new folder on your desktop, and put the MP3 in that folder.
Open the folder, hit command-A (select all) and then command-D (duplicate selected files)
Repeat the previous step until your hard drive fills up.
You should be left with hundreds or more copies of the MP3. With each copy, you have STOLEN from the artist. With each copy, your artist LOSES MORE AND MORE MONEY. By the time you get to the end, each keystroke should be DRAINING THEIR BANK ACCOUNTS of THOUSANDS of DOLLARS!!
If we all did this, we could instantly bankrupt any artist. For even more damage, move the MP3s to a CDR and repeat.
I thought that was a well-recognized phenomenon: when times are tough, entertainment becomes more popular. Recession, war, terrorists, etc., are all unpleasant things that people like to escape from. It happened during previous wars and the Great Depression.
To all the conspiracy theorists: forget President Bush funding the terrorist attacks to better his popularity rating, how about Jack Valenti staging 9/11 to improve the MPAA member's bottom line?
Yes, exactly, the content providers can sell whatever they like. They can take dog shit off their lawn and press it into a thin wafer, then slap Britney's picture on it, and sell it for $18.99.
But it has to be clearly labeled! It has to say in large readable text: "WARNING: this box contains a wafer of dog shit and does not play in any CD player." Likewise, they can put "copy interference" schemes on their CDs, just 1) let me know it's there, and 2) DON'T throw me in jail because I made a web page about how ineffective it is.
Low transaction costs (including knowing exactly what you're buying) are the "secret sauce" for free markets, and free speech is pretty nice too.
Wow, that's pretty cool, I've seen those before. Must be a bitch to photograph without getting the camera in the picture.:-) Though I'm pretty sure I'd need at least a 14" sphere for uATX case. Or maybe I could just get a Mac Cube and stick it inside...
We, the people, need a charismatic, high-profile champion with no stake other than the public interest. Who will take up the mantle?
Yes, Dan Gillmor is absolutely right, we need a champion for individual rights. Someone who can make a case for the public domain that doesn't devolve into an argument about which company can make more money.
Intel isn't going to do it, because Intel is interested only in Intel's profits.
Someone needs to say things like:
Copyright is not an absolute right, it is a compromise. There can be, and there is such a thing as "too much copyright"
There is such a thing as public domain.
All inventions and writings should end up in the public domain, because that's where they came from.
Dead people's works don't need copyright protection.
Individuals copy because they want to. A government interested in "freedom" should find a way to ensure people can do what they want. A corporation interested in "capitalism" should find a way to profit from the things people want to do.
America is about Opportunity, not Guarantee (I believe Lincoln said words to that effect). If your business model doesn't work, find another one.
and so forth. Normally, the Government is supposed to represent the People. Unfortunately, the Government has been priced out of reach of the People.
We have a moratorium on internet taxes.. why didn't we have a moratorium on internet copyrights until things got sorted out?
So indeed, who will pick up the mantle?
The only person I know of who makes a moral argument for this is RMS, but unfortunately he doesn't quite fit the description "charismatic"....
C'mon, where are the perfectly polished aluminum sphere PCs? When will someone put a PC inside a disco ball? How about just a pyramid? Anybody?
Oh, well, maybe I ought to try making one myself. What's the maximum distance across those micro ATX boards..hmm...and where would I get a big polished metal sphere anyway..
I have the solution to the "Piracy" which should make everyone happy. The problem is not in the technology, it lies in the simple fact that the content providers actually give consumers the first-generation copies in the first place, which facilitates second-hand copying. This practice needs to be stopped.
The solution is deviously simple: when a someone goes to the record store and buys, let's say, the hot new Alicia Keys CD, they should only get a copy of the liner notes, not the easy-to-copy CD.
Voila! No original, no copies, and the problem is solved. You can't pirate a CD that you don't have. Sure, album reviewers might have a harder time with this scheme, but your average Britney Spears-listening vegetard won't know the difference. They'll still be a part of the excitement as they clutch their empty CD case, their small, vapid minds unaware of the change. Since most pop music is brand and marketing, the music studios could concentrate their efforts more efficiently.
It will save money on studio and recording fees as well.
Someone get Sen. Fritz Hollings on the phone, if he helps set this plan into motion, there's a nice vacation condo waiting for him!
I replaced my old iMac partly to get this fancy CD burner and the iTunes software. If only I had known I was creating theft by making copies of my CDs and rearranging the tracks without permission, I would never have bought it.
But on the other hand, if I didn't buy the Apple computer, my $1300 would be sitting in my savings account, denying the government rightfully-deserved tax revenue (or even worst, I could've put it in my Roth IRA! Only communists use Roth IRAs to deny the government tax revenue!!).
I don't know what to do! Should I take the computer back and then turn myself into the authorities? Please, won't Bill Gates or Mickey Mouse come on TV and tell me what to do! Or N*SYNC could write a song about it so I'll know what to think! Help! Thinking is hard!
Well higher tax rates don't necessarily mean more government revenue (think about a 100% tax rate, no one would bother earning wages).
But your point is valid, if I'm a business and I don't spend $1000 on Microsoft software, that's $1000 more dollars I have to pay MY OWN taxes on!! So the government gets the tax revenue somehow when an economy has high productivity.
Microsoft's argument is simply callous, shallow, arrogant, self-serving, overly-simplistic, and pretty much devoid of meaning.
From a distance, Microsoft and the Big Media companies look an awful lot like a bunch of communists who want a centrally-planned economy.
Slashdot Mirror
My ISP (CTC) started doing this on my static dialup without warning. I noticed because 1) eBay pages suddenly required reloading in order to update (ie, if I quit the browser, and then went back to a dynamic eBay page, it was the same as before unless I reloaded the page). .. and then 2) I noticed when connecting to another machine, the address that showed up in the logs was not mine!
Anyway, after poking the machine I discovered it was a Cisco something or other. I also discovered that if you sent a malformed or invalid request, it would STOP transparent proxying for a few minutes!
So the solution I came up with was to telnet port 80 someplace (didn't matter where, because the proxy would pick it up) and type "PLEASE DON'T PROXY ME" and close the connection and then it would leave me alone for a few minutes.
Most of the time I left it on as the proxying seemed to speed up the usual day-to-day surfing. But you might want to try a script to do this automatically. Probably this is just an option the engineers forgot to turn off (I believe by law they must turn off all customer-friendly services :-).
After a few weeks of doing this, and making a few phone calls, the proxy mysteriously went away. Maybe they took my static dialup off the list, or they decided to do it for everybody. Whatever. I've been using Squid so it's pointless for me anyway.
BitTorrent allows users to download a file from multiple different people.
Or if you're downloading the latest boy band single: multiple identical people.
I read a sound bite
*sigh* time for bed
Why shouldn't shareware authors expect to make a profit? Because you say so?
In a free market, nobody should "expect" to make a profit. If a shareware author's chosen activity doesn't make him enough money, he should find something else.
A shareware author shouldn't look at how many copies are in use, they should ask themselves, of all the things I could do to create income, am I getting the best return by writing shareware? If Yes, continue writing shareware, if No, then do something else.
Of course, when you actually check the number of copies, most shareware authors will find that people are using the software without paying.
The same is true for music as well. I read a sound bite somewhere that 2 albums were copies for every 1 that was sold. This was BEFORE the "MP3 (r)evolution". Yet the music business survives. Because they have nice profit margins.
Now, I don't fault people for trying to get MORE money for the same amount of work. But if they don't succeed, there isn't much else to do, because they're not entitled to it in the first place! The harsh reality of free markets.
the computer is gradually becoming the instrument itself.
Gee, considering much of my CD collection has been computer music for almost a decade, I'm glad to see a mainstream article about it!
Computing machines have been used for music for quite some time. Other posters have mentioned the software like Reaktor, Absynth, FruityLoops, Max/MSP, Reason, etc, etc. Here are some random artists you can check out:
Richard Devine Uses Reaktor on several computers to create complex industrial electronic beats. His stuff is pretty unbelievable when you listen close to all the detail. He's written music for Nike ads recently so he's fairly accessible.
kid 606: An up-and-coming laptop punk. He's written silly stuff and serious stuff too and done at lot for the live electronic scene. He pretty much uses only Reaktor on a laptop as well. Look for the track " Catstep/My Kitten/Catnap Vatstep DSP Remix By Hrvatski" on your favorite music-sharing service, off his "Down With the Scene" album, you won't be disappointed! Or at least you'll laugh at the singing robot voice.
Autechre are the masters of abstract electronic music (imho). For the past few albums, they've slowly gravitated toward generative music (i.e., write a program to write the music). They use Max/MSP and other stuff (not entirely computers all the time). Their last album Confield is very abstract and almost unlistenable. But fascinating.
Taylor Deupree and his 12k label from New York are into the minimalist side of things, very minimal electronic noise, very art-school stuff. Some of 12k's stuff combines very well with the noise a computer makes, which I like to play when working so that my computer's fan noise is "remixed". Pretty cool if you're into the abstract. They use all sorts of software for their art.
Another Electronic Musician is a guy in the California scene who makes nice unpretencious (sp) electronic beats with Reaktor and other stuff.
Grooves magazine is one of many independent magazines on electronic music. If you see an issue at your local leftfield bookstore, flip through it. They review music software too.
There's plenty of academics into electronic music too. Paul Lansky is one off the top of my head. Several music schools have electronic music programs that use a lot of this software too (Berkeley uses Reason I believe).
So, there is a pretty huge scene for electronic music. There are plenty of young musicians who have chosen the laptop as their primary instrument, and don't even think twice about it.
You have any URLs about that? I remember a product many years ago that would read strips from a piece of paper with a few K of data. It included software to print and a few magazines distributed programs that way until it went the way of the :#::Cue:?#:Cat::// (whatever the correct punctuation is on that thing). Sounds like a good time to bring that tech back to life!!
Okay, if they tax all media, then I'll get all my music for free. A $2 data CDR is still cheaper than a $19 CD. And since the "artists" (a funny way to spell "record labels", isn't it?) are getting paid (apparently, this is very important), I would feel ZERO moral obligation to EVER buy a CD again (well actually I don't really feel obligated now, but I do it anyway, with a tax I would feel obligated to NOT buy any more music.. why pay twice?).
And OF COURSE every little indie label run out of somebody's bedroom with six releases is going to get their fair share, right?
Sounds good. Music as a public good, lets pay with public funds, and the record labels can go to hell.
Which of course isn't how it will work, the record labels will get fatter and more corrupt as they feast on the blood of the proletariate, most indie record labels will continue to operate at a loss, and CDs will grow to $24 to combat the extra "piracy" brought about by the tax, but we can pretend that life is fair...
I have a shirt that can track how many days I've gone without bathing, using a "handsfree background olfactory indicator". High tech stuff, really.
Also, I haven't tried it myself, but I think past the 30-day point it is indeed actually capable of bending light waves. It could probably also melt steel. Though due to the olfactory indicator mentioned above, it isn't exactly what I'd call "invisible"...
Can I have a million dollar grant for this invention? Erm, yeah, I'll understand if you don't want to deliver the check in person.
So, Paypal has the same opportunity to make profits with your money the way banks do, by investing it.
Sounds like an insurance company too, doesn't it? They keep a "float" of other people's money until they need to pay something out (ie, a customer withdraws their money). The rest of the time they have the money to play with.
I think I agree with the FDIC, PayPal is NOT a bank. But they DO need to be regulated. They need to be regulated as a "payment service". If the regulations haven't been written yet, somebody needs to do it.
Central planning of production and distribution, central planning of consumption -- aren't they really the same thing?
Well, interestingly, the way I see it, for "intellectual property" there is always an infinite supply of a given good, so it's impossible to change production....hmm..
BECAUSE IT WORKS JUST FINE.
What are you saying, Citizen? You're not meeting your consumption quota? You're not upgrading when Central Planning issues Upgrade Orders?
You're denying Microsoft their much-deserved Software Revenue! You're denying the Government their much-deserved Tax Revenue! How unAmerican! General Gates would not be pleased!
You must upgrade immediately. Our helpful Upgrade Enforcers will assist you in all aspects (or will tie you to your chair if you are uncooperative). The new version of Office will be glorious, Citizen!
(You know, the Communists had it all wrong. The best way to manage society is through central planning of Consumption!)
From the page:
Window$? Very unprofessional.
Trademarks are copyrighted? What does that mean??
Well, anyway, I hope they don't go under, as I was thinking of switching from Red Hat to Mandrake on a new P4 (I always buy my Linux distros to support the companies, and so should you).
- Worst driver
Anonymous 4 (USA) - A driver gameHey, I didn't know Anonymous 4 did programming too?
Har har. Anyway, compared to today's high-level languages, C is boring. Let's see some obfuscated Ruby programs.
This is like a modern voodoo doll:
You should be left with hundreds or more copies of the MP3. With each copy, you have STOLEN from the artist. With each copy, your artist LOSES MORE AND MORE MONEY. By the time you get to the end, each keystroke should be DRAINING THEIR BANK ACCOUNTS of THOUSANDS of DOLLARS!!
If we all did this, we could instantly bankrupt any artist. For even more damage, move the MP3s to a CDR and repeat.
I thought that was a well-recognized phenomenon: when times are tough, entertainment becomes more popular. Recession, war, terrorists, etc., are all unpleasant things that people like to escape from. It happened during previous wars and the Great Depression.
To all the conspiracy theorists: forget President Bush funding the terrorist attacks to better his popularity rating, how about Jack Valenti staging 9/11 to improve the MPAA member's bottom line?
Yes, exactly, the content providers can sell whatever they like. They can take dog shit off their lawn and press it into a thin wafer, then slap Britney's picture on it, and sell it for $18.99.
But it has to be clearly labeled! It has to say in large readable text: "WARNING: this box contains a wafer of dog shit and does not play in any CD player." Likewise, they can put "copy interference" schemes on their CDs, just 1) let me know it's there, and 2) DON'T throw me in jail because I made a web page about how ineffective it is.
Low transaction costs (including knowing exactly what you're buying) are the "secret sauce" for free markets, and free speech is pretty nice too.
Or you could just browse with Lynx.
Or use an ad-busting proxy.
Or just ask daddy for a little extra money this week and pay the damn $5.
How the hell did this get modded up?
The judge said the two gunmen were the ones responsible for the teacher's death.
Jesus the Christ, we have to waste a judge's time with this crap?
Maybe, you know, the gunmen liked violence and violent movies/games because they were unbalanced, violent people?
Nah, that would be too illiberal.
Wow, that's pretty cool, I've seen those before. Must be a bitch to photograph without getting the camera in the picture. :-) Though I'm pretty sure I'd need at least a 14" sphere for uATX case. Or maybe I could just get a Mac Cube and stick it inside...
We, the people, need a charismatic, high-profile champion with no stake other than the public interest. Who will take up the mantle?
Yes, Dan Gillmor is absolutely right, we need a champion for individual rights. Someone who can make a case for the public domain that doesn't devolve into an argument about which company can make more money.
Intel isn't going to do it, because Intel is interested only in Intel's profits.
Someone needs to say things like:
- Copyright is not an absolute right, it is a compromise. There can be, and there is such a thing as "too much copyright"
- There is such a thing as public domain.
- All inventions and writings should end up in the public domain, because that's where they came from.
- Dead people's works don't need copyright protection.
- Individuals copy because they want to. A government interested in "freedom" should find a way to ensure people can do what they want. A corporation interested in "capitalism" should find a way to profit from the things people want to do.
- America is about Opportunity, not Guarantee (I believe Lincoln said words to that effect). If your business model doesn't work, find another one.
and so forth. Normally, the Government is supposed to represent the People. Unfortunately, the Government has been priced out of reach of the People.We have a moratorium on internet taxes.. why didn't we have a moratorium on internet copyrights until things got sorted out?
So indeed, who will pick up the mantle?
The only person I know of who makes a moral argument for this is RMS, but unfortunately he doesn't quite fit the description "charismatic"....
C'mon, where are the perfectly polished aluminum sphere PCs? When will someone put a PC inside a disco ball? How about just a pyramid? Anybody?
Oh, well, maybe I ought to try making one myself. What's the maximum distance across those micro ATX boards..hmm...and where would I get a big polished metal sphere anyway..
I have the solution to the "Piracy" which should make everyone happy. The problem is not in the technology, it lies in the simple fact that the content providers actually give consumers the first-generation copies in the first place, which facilitates second-hand copying. This practice needs to be stopped.
The solution is deviously simple: when a someone goes to the record store and buys, let's say, the hot new Alicia Keys CD, they should only get a copy of the liner notes, not the easy-to-copy CD.
Voila! No original, no copies, and the problem is solved. You can't pirate a CD that you don't have. Sure, album reviewers might have a harder time with this scheme, but your average Britney Spears-listening vegetard won't know the difference. They'll still be a part of the excitement as they clutch their empty CD case, their small, vapid minds unaware of the change. Since most pop music is brand and marketing, the music studios could concentrate their efforts more efficiently.
It will save money on studio and recording fees as well.
Someone get Sen. Fritz Hollings on the phone, if he helps set this plan into motion, there's a nice vacation condo waiting for him!
I replaced my old iMac partly to get this fancy CD burner and the iTunes software. If only I had known I was creating theft by making copies of my CDs and rearranging the tracks without permission, I would never have bought it.
But on the other hand, if I didn't buy the Apple computer, my $1300 would be sitting in my savings account, denying the government rightfully-deserved tax revenue (or even worst, I could've put it in my Roth IRA! Only communists use Roth IRAs to deny the government tax revenue!!).
I don't know what to do! Should I take the computer back and then turn myself into the authorities? Please, won't Bill Gates or Mickey Mouse come on TV and tell me what to do! Or N*SYNC could write a song about it so I'll know what to think! Help! Thinking is hard!
Well higher tax rates don't necessarily mean more government revenue (think about a 100% tax rate, no one would bother earning wages).
But your point is valid, if I'm a business and I don't spend $1000 on Microsoft software, that's $1000 more dollars I have to pay MY OWN taxes on!! So the government gets the tax revenue somehow when an economy has high productivity.
Microsoft's argument is simply callous, shallow, arrogant, self-serving, overly-simplistic, and pretty much devoid of meaning.
From a distance, Microsoft and the Big Media companies look an awful lot like a bunch of communists who want a centrally-planned economy.
Congratulations to the lucky couple! I also hope this proves to be a boon to both Open Source and Free Software.
(..must learn to read /. headlines a little s.l.o.w.e.r..)