i'm a canadian, or i'd be writing to the members of the commerce committee myself. this bothers me a lot, too, it's a precedent. not a legal one, mind you, but many countries may feel that they can do the same if the USA gets away with it.
if you are an american citizen, you MUST do something about this! it's really easy to sit on your ass and bitch about it, but it's not that much harder to write a letter.
not an email. we all know that 98% of politicians ignore them. WRITE A LETTER. yes, get out star office or some other variant and write a letter, at the very least use a form letter that other people have posted.
Print it. Put it in an envelope and add postage, address it and mail it. IT'S NOT THAT HARD AND YOU WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
if you're not going to get off your ass and do it, what makes you think anyone else will?
TELL YOUR FRIENDS. this is a seriously facist bill that must be stopped.
I can't really say that i like the idea that i could be under surveillance of this type in a public place, but i DO see how it can be of great value to protecting public interests, such as catching dangerous criminals.
This is why i think that some laws should be placed to guide the use of this technology.
First of all, it should be available to ONLY law enforcement. Using this technology in bookstores, malls, etcetera, is wrong, this allows corporations to use this for their own profit, most likely at the customer's expense (we all know how trustworthy corporations are).
Second of all, if a known criminal is identified by this system and apprehended, s/he should have to go through a proper identification process before anything further occurs. This *should* go without saying, but if it isn't explicity stated in the law then i can imagine many occurrances of "mistakes" leading to some pretty uncomfortable situations.
This isn't about the failed dotcoms, that was a big bust because of overinflated IPOs and business models built on untested assumptions.
The concern now seems to be reworking/replacing the internet with something that's more suited to delivering content to dumb terminals such as set-top type boxes for streaming video, applications for cellphones, etc. It seems that adapting phones to the web just isn't working, and well, the unpredictable delays/latency in streaming video must not be very impressive to shareholders.
This doesn't worry me in itself... i only worry that Big Business wants to eliminate what they feel is unnecessary traffic (p2p apps/ftp/irc/etc) so as not to impede the flow of profit-generating activity. That's what scares me.
RAID, hot swappable components, scheduled backups?
THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR DATA LOSS.
this IS just an instant messenger service, but if a large firm like MS doesn't understand the importance of safe data storage, they are digging their own hole. Let's hope this keeps up.
Remember the rule: NEVER RELY ON MICROSOFT, THEY WILL LET YOU DOWN WHEN YOU NEED THEM MOST.
Genetically modified stuff
on
Eco-Terrorism
·
· Score: 2
Everyone on the side of genetic modification forgets that things are just fine the way they are, it's the way humans USE them that's the problem. not getting enough vitamins in your food? maybe because your oppressive government isn't making the right provisions for your health!
It's so ridiculous. We have the gall to think that we are fixing things when we are only making them worse. Solve the problems with humans before you start messing with everything else, or we'll ALL be sorry.
Microsoft is attacking the GPL with FUD because it threatens its business model, given.
What i'd like to know is, what is the Open Source community doing to couteract this negative attention? It's all very well and good to have Important People from the community contribute their replies to statements and speeches made my MS, but i think further steps have to be taken.
Is there any sort of "war chest" for counter-propaganda? It's about time we stopped plugging along, assuming that Open Source will "win" on its own merits, assumptions can be dangerous. It would be quite the wake-up call to suddenly find that all the campaign contributions and lobbying has culminated in a fatal blow to the GPL. Don't think MS isn't investigating ways to have the GPL made illegal in some way. This is a corporation that has always shown that it will employ all means necessary to exercise its will.
Let's hear from anyone who knows about any feasible alternatives to sitting back and watching the fight. I want to get involved in preventing a wonderful system from being trampled in the name of greed and domination.
in the simplest sense this is no big deal, MS has done nothing wrong and in fact haven't made any real changes to the liscence except the explicitness of its wording, however...
can nothing be done to stop their 'badmouthing' of the GPL? as their FUD snowballs it is creating an uphill battle for acceptance for GPL'd code. i don't think the damages can be quantified, but someone should look into it. perhaps the FSF can launch a lawsuit for defamation, or something of the sort?
(i think that by the time i read a story, no one is going to scroll down far enough to read my comments, mod or not, but anyways)
why not implement the gnutella protocol so that all machines connected to the net can grab libraries defined as sharable on other machines around it?
it'd reduce overall traffic and frustration.
i am investigating the possibility of forming an "organization" of citizens concerned about the growing power of multinational corporations. i would like to organize a group of people who all feel that legal action is the wrong way, the way the corporations would like us to fight (because they know they will win one way or another), and that taking matters into our OWN hands is the only solution. please contact me at junkuser69@hotmail.com
This scares me even more when you consider the number of lawyers MS has constantly lobbying the US gov.
There is no doubt in my mind that they are doing everything in their power to make Open Source and the GPL *ILLEGAL*.
next thing you know it'll be illegal to have a compiler, period.
Slashdot Mirror
ok, listen.
i'm a canadian, or i'd be writing to the members of the commerce committee myself. this bothers me a lot, too, it's a precedent. not a legal one, mind you, but many countries may feel that they can do the same if the USA gets away with it.
if you are an american citizen, you MUST do something about this! it's really easy to sit on your ass and bitch about it, but it's not that much harder to write a letter.
not an email. we all know that 98% of politicians ignore them. WRITE A LETTER. yes, get out star office or some other variant and write a letter, at the very least use a form letter that other people have posted.
Print it. Put it in an envelope and add postage, address it and mail it. IT'S NOT THAT HARD AND YOU WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
if you're not going to get off your ass and do it, what makes you think anyone else will?
TELL YOUR FRIENDS. this is a seriously facist bill that must be stopped.
I can't really say that i like the idea that i could be under surveillance of this type in a public place, but i DO see how it can be of great value to protecting public interests, such as catching dangerous criminals.
This is why i think that some laws should be placed to guide the use of this technology.
First of all, it should be available to ONLY law enforcement. Using this technology in bookstores, malls, etcetera, is wrong, this allows corporations to use this for their own profit, most likely at the customer's expense (we all know how trustworthy corporations are).
Second of all, if a known criminal is identified by this system and apprehended, s/he should have to go through a proper identification process before anything further occurs. This *should* go without saying, but if it isn't explicity stated in the law then i can imagine many occurrances of "mistakes" leading to some pretty uncomfortable situations.
give me rewritable 3" cds and i'll be happy with this.
This isn't about the failed dotcoms, that was a big bust because of overinflated IPOs and business models built on untested assumptions.
The concern now seems to be reworking/replacing the internet with something that's more suited to delivering content to dumb terminals such as set-top type boxes for streaming video, applications for cellphones, etc. It seems that adapting phones to the web just isn't working, and well, the unpredictable delays/latency in streaming video must not be very impressive to shareholders.
This doesn't worry me in itself... i only worry that Big Business wants to eliminate what they feel is unnecessary traffic (p2p apps/ftp/irc/etc) so as not to impede the flow of profit-generating activity. That's what scares me.
Whatever happened to redundant hardware?
RAID, hot swappable components, scheduled backups?
THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR DATA LOSS.
this IS just an instant messenger service, but if a large firm like MS doesn't understand the importance of safe data storage, they are digging their own hole. Let's hope this keeps up.
Remember the rule: NEVER RELY ON MICROSOFT, THEY WILL LET YOU DOWN WHEN YOU NEED THEM MOST.
Everyone on the side of genetic modification forgets that things are just fine the way they are, it's the way humans USE them that's the problem. not getting enough vitamins in your food? maybe because your oppressive government isn't making the right provisions for your health!
It's so ridiculous. We have the gall to think that we are fixing things when we are only making them worse. Solve the problems with humans before you start messing with everything else, or we'll ALL be sorry.
The problem with passwords is that they are not authentication of identity.
The best secured system usually relies on passwords, somewhere, and of course, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Microsoft is attacking the GPL with FUD because it threatens its business model, given.
What i'd like to know is, what is the Open Source community doing to couteract this negative attention? It's all very well and good to have Important People from the community contribute their replies to statements and speeches made my MS, but i think further steps have to be taken.
Is there any sort of "war chest" for counter-propaganda? It's about time we stopped plugging along, assuming that Open Source will "win" on its own merits, assumptions can be dangerous. It would be quite the wake-up call to suddenly find that all the campaign contributions and lobbying has culminated in a fatal blow to the GPL. Don't think MS isn't investigating ways to have the GPL made illegal in some way. This is a corporation that has always shown that it will employ all means necessary to exercise its will.
Let's hear from anyone who knows about any feasible alternatives to sitting back and watching the fight. I want to get involved in preventing a wonderful system from being trampled in the name of greed and domination.
in the simplest sense this is no big deal, MS has done nothing wrong and in fact haven't made any real changes to the liscence except the explicitness of its wording, however... can nothing be done to stop their 'badmouthing' of the GPL? as their FUD snowballs it is creating an uphill battle for acceptance for GPL'd code. i don't think the damages can be quantified, but someone should look into it. perhaps the FSF can launch a lawsuit for defamation, or something of the sort? (i think that by the time i read a story, no one is going to scroll down far enough to read my comments, mod or not, but anyways)
why not implement the gnutella protocol so that all machines connected to the net can grab libraries defined as sharable on other machines around it? it'd reduce overall traffic and frustration.
i am investigating the possibility of forming an "organization" of citizens concerned about the growing power of multinational corporations. i would like to organize a group of people who all feel that legal action is the wrong way, the way the corporations would like us to fight (because they know they will win one way or another), and that taking matters into our OWN hands is the only solution. please contact me at junkuser69@hotmail.com
This scares me even more when you consider the number of lawyers MS has constantly lobbying the US gov. There is no doubt in my mind that they are doing everything in their power to make Open Source and the GPL *ILLEGAL*. next thing you know it'll be illegal to have a compiler, period.