The problem is now compounded, due to the bill the liberal Bob Dole pushed through a few years ago that has universities holding patents.
Now that universities are patent holders, they are much less likely to share data that has even the possibility of a potential patent. No longer are the universities focused on doing basic research and increasing knowledge unless it has high potential for a rapid payback.
Furthermore, as tax payers we subsidize universities, who use the money to develop technology that we will have the privilege of paying royalty costs to use. This intellectual property should belong to all of us as we paid for it once.
If the Universities start taking out software patents, instead of tucking the work safely into GNU, we will see a slowing of open software development too.
At some point, the data has to go to a D/A (Digital to Audio converter) At that point the data HAS to be unencrypted. This data may be only available inside the chip, but that will not stop a Chinese CD copier from paying $10K to get the chip opened and probed to bring out this signal. Once one copy has been extracted, it seems rather silly to inconvenience the consumer. Regardless, piracy will continue.
Perhaps this is the wrong battle to fight. There is a much better approach. We need to lobby our Government bodies to insist on using software that defaults to non-proprietary file standards (I'm going to refer to these as OFS(Open File Standards) from now on) as a first step.
OFS(Open file Standards) are a cause that we can get support from all computer users, as it benefits Linux but also Mac, Solaris and even M$ OS users.
A good argument to use is that the requirements to make information open and publicly available is discriminatory to poor people if the file standards require paying the M$ tax. An amendment to the FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) at the federal and state levels is what to ask for. When the Feds require open file standards, Linux will become much more competitive. Once the files standards are open, Linux can easily succeed.
Be aware that GIF, JPG, are not open standards. Even PDF cannot be modified to add functionality. If Adobe decides to come out with a super set of PDF and collect royalties they have every right to do so. What we should push for is for the government (particularly the Federal level) to support open standards, free to all, much as the bureau of standards has done for units of measure (let's hope no one claims a patent on the meter).
Furthermore, we need to ask that all the extensions of government web pages be free of proprietary structures so that any browser will be assured of displaying the page content without depending on proprietary plugins.
A sample letter for your federal and state representatives is at http://xtronics.com/reference/openfiles.htm
Open file standards are intimately tied to the adoption of Linux. Recently, there have been a couple of posts on/. about active Linux advocacy/evangelism, trying to get government bodies to use Linux ,
There is a much better approach. We need to lobby our Government bodies to insist on using software that defaults to non-proprietary file standards (I'm going to refer to these as OFS(Open File Standards) from now on) as a first step.
OFS(Open file Standards) are a cause that we can get support from all computer users, as it benefits Linux but also Mac, Solaris and even M$ OS users.
A good argument to use is that the requirements to make information open and publicly available is discriminatory to poor people if the file standards require paying the M$ tax. An amendment to the FOIA(Freedom Of Information Act) at the federal and state levels is what to ask for. When the Feds require open file standards, Linux will become much more competitive. Once the files standards are open, Linux can easily succeed.
Be aware that GIF, JPG, are not open standards. Even PDF cannot be modified to add functionality. If Adobe decides to come out with a super set of PDF and collect royalties they have every right to do so. What we should push for is for the government (particularly the Federal level) to support open standards, free to all, much as the bureau of standards has done for units of measure (let's hope no one claims a patent on the meter).
Furthermore, we need to ask that all the extensions of government web pages be free of proprietary structures so that any browser will be assured of displaying the page content without depending on proprietary plugins.
You are correct - But look at the other clueless replys here!
Look guys - If you get the data at the D/A converter (or right off the display electronics if it is direct digital to an LCD) the copy is in the clear - it may contain a watermark - but the folks in China don't care.
I talked to the head of an animation software company just last week - they use dongles - his last release was available on CD Dongle free in China 2 days after the release.
Hollywood should get it straight NOW- there will be NO copy protection scheem that works - their only hope is to sell at a low enough price that the piraters won't bother.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem is now compounded, due to the bill the liberal Bob Dole pushed through a few years ago that has universities holding patents.
Now that universities are patent holders, they are much less likely to share data that has even the possibility of a potential patent. No longer are the universities focused on doing basic research and increasing knowledge unless it has high potential for a rapid payback.
Furthermore, as tax payers we subsidize universities, who use the money to develop technology that we will have the privilege of paying royalty costs to use. This intellectual property should belong to all of us as we paid for it once.
If the Universities start taking out software patents, instead of tucking the work safely into GNU, we will see a slowing of open software development too.
At some point, the data has to go to a D/A (Digital to Audio converter) At that point the data HAS to be unencrypted. This data may be only available inside the chip, but that will not stop a Chinese CD copier from paying $10K to get the chip opened and probed to bring out this signal. Once one copy has been extracted, it seems rather silly to inconvenience the consumer. Regardless, piracy will continue.
OFS(Open file Standards) are a cause that we can get support from all computer users, as it benefits Linux but also Mac, Solaris and even M$ OS users.
A good argument to use is that the requirements to make information open and publicly available is discriminatory to poor people if the file standards require paying the M$ tax. An amendment to the FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) at the federal and state levels is what to ask for. When the Feds require open file standards, Linux will become much more competitive. Once the files standards are open, Linux can easily succeed.
Be aware that GIF, JPG, are not open standards. Even PDF cannot be modified to add functionality. If Adobe decides to come out with a super set of PDF and collect royalties they have every right to do so. What we should push for is for the government (particularly the Federal level) to support open standards, free to all, much as the bureau of standards has done for units of measure (let's hope no one claims a patent on the meter).
Furthermore, we need to ask that all the extensions of government web pages be free of proprietary structures so that any browser will be assured of displaying the page content without depending on proprietary plugins.
A sample letter for your federal and state representatives is at http://xtronics.com/reference/openfiles.htm
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/17/124225 7&mode=thread&tid=106
There is a much better approach. We need to lobby our Government bodies to insist on using software that defaults to non-proprietary file standards (I'm going to refer to these as OFS(Open File Standards) from now on) as a first step.
OFS(Open file Standards) are a cause that we can get support from all computer users, as it benefits Linux but also Mac, Solaris and even M$ OS users.
A good argument to use is that the requirements to make information open and publicly available is discriminatory to poor people if the file standards require paying the M$ tax. An amendment to the FOIA(Freedom Of Information Act) at the federal and state levels is what to ask for. When the Feds require open file standards, Linux will become much more competitive. Once the files standards are open, Linux can easily succeed.
Be aware that GIF, JPG, are not open standards. Even PDF cannot be modified to add functionality. If Adobe decides to come out with a super set of PDF and collect royalties they have every right to do so. What we should push for is for the government (particularly the Federal level) to support open standards, free to all, much as the bureau of standards has done for units of measure (let's hope no one claims a patent on the meter).
Furthermore, we need to ask that all the extensions of government web pages be free of proprietary structures so that any browser will be assured of displaying the page content without depending on proprietary plugins.
Look guys - If you get the data at the D/A converter (or right off the display electronics if it is direct digital to an LCD) the copy is in the clear - it may contain a watermark - but the folks in China don't care.
I talked to the head of an animation software company just last week - they use dongles - his last release was available on CD Dongle free in China 2 days after the release.
Hollywood should get it straight NOW- there will be NO copy protection scheem that works - their only hope is to sell at a low enough price that the piraters won't bother.