Re:Letting users do things that are otherwise ille
on
GPL's Strength
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I'm aware that this may not be the case in the UK
It is the case. The relevant legislation (Copyright Designs & Patents Act 1988) was amended in 1995 (IIRC) to specifically cover non-infringing acts wrt
software. So basically you don't need a EULA.
Yes, it would be. Unfortunately it would be too efficient for those in power (I mean the likes of the record intustry execs, not their puppets in Washington), because it would cut them out completely, allowing the creators a direct path to their readers/listeners and guaranteeing them an income.
Never forget that it's only illegal as long as the
law says so, and the law will stop saying so when the people demand that it shuts up.
I'm a firm believer in reasonable copyright laws, but the "copyright industry" is really pushing too far. If they don't watch their steps, the whole tottering edifice will come tumbling down and everyone will be worse off for it.
That is what is obsoleting your old set. When the industry decides that DVI is the only acceptable interface, they flip the switch, and the 1080i signal is now down-res'd to 480p.
Assuming it's your set that's reducing the quality of what you see, and not the transmitter that's transmitting reduced quality, you can quite legally build a circumvention device, since reducing the quality is not a right enjoyed by copyright holders under current legislation.
That's not to say that the current totalitarian regime in the US (and by extension the rest of the world) won't make it illegal at the drop of a "campaign contribution".
Think about it. That nice bit of C source code you just spent hours lovingly crafting - just input data to the compiler. The resulting binary file - just data to the OS's loader. The OS itself - again, just data as far as the bootloader is concerned. The bootloader - just data for the BIOS. And the BIOS was only data when the device programmer programmed it into the ROM.
Conversely, what you consider to be data could also be argued to be a program. That MP3 file is a series of instructions to tell the MP3 interpreter how to construct something that resembles the original waveform. A MIDI file can contain loops - software of data?
You're really asking the wrong question. The question should be "Am I distributing anything that I didn't produce myself, and if so am I permitted to do so?" It doesn't matter whether it's software or data - if you're distributing someone else's copyright material, you need a license. I don't think a court would decide that a compiler write can claim copyright over the compiler's output, but library routines are a grey area.
Whatever happens, let this be a lesson - before you buy development tools, check whether their output can be used royalty free. If not, avoid these tools wherever possible.
If you encrypt a message with a one-time pad, you can construct another one-time pad that will
"decrypt" the message to anything you like - recipe
for chocolate brownies, "evidence" to incriminate
John Ashcroft, literally anything.
It isn't even new. I discovered ages ago that if you attach a winmail.dat file to your mail, with the correct "content=application/ms-tnef" (IIRC) mime-type, Outlook (or at least early versions or it) would read the contents of the file in preference to the "real" content of the mail. The easiest way to do this is to persuade someone with Outlock to send you a suitable mail in RTF form
containing your message: something like "If you are reading this message instead of the content of the message, contact Microsoft Techincal Support, or preferably replace your mail reader software with something that works". Save the attachment.
Attach it to all outgoing mail.
Fun for the first 10 minutes, but it gets boring after that.
If you do happen to find a 5.25" CD, you can quite probably file it down, since, unlike those old-fashioned round black plastic things, the CD track starts in the middle and works outwards.
Companies get Legalese*. Private customers get
Greek
(* Official language of the Republic of Legalia,
a small and not-very-well-known island just off
the coast of Marketania, where, incidentally, the
majority of the population speaks Bullshit.)
Well, if their litigation were to be successful,
they'd have to (a) prove that you used the specification and (b) prove that you accetped the terms of the "license". Remember, folks, you don't need a license to read published works. You only need the license if you want to copy and distribute said works.
Anyway, FWIW, here is my
reply to their request for comments (Cced to the dmca_discuss mailing list). Not that they'll take any notice of me, because I'm not a US
citizen - but what the hell.
Slashdot Mirror
It is the case. The relevant legislation (Copyright Designs & Patents Act 1988) was amended in 1995 (IIRC) to specifically cover non-infringing acts wrt software. So basically you don't need a EULA.
BTW:
;-)
Writing a Haiku
In seventeen syllables
Is not very hard
ZZ saves you two keys.
And both save you from touching the file if you didn't make any changes.
Does Vim support '%' on #if/#else/#endif yet? That's one of the things that stops me from switching from Elvis.
Dime, as in
"Buddy, can you spare a paradigm?"
You don't need to analyse thousands of transistors - they're all pretty much the same anyway. What's interesting is the connections between them.
Oh, and ;-)
Yes, it would be. Unfortunately it would be too efficient for those in power (I mean the likes of the record intustry execs, not their puppets in Washington), because it would cut them out completely, allowing the creators a direct path to their readers/listeners and guaranteeing them an income.
Never forget that it's only illegal as long as the law says so, and the law will stop saying so when the people demand that it shuts up.
I'm a firm believer in reasonable copyright laws, but the "copyright industry" is really pushing too far. If they don't watch their steps, the whole tottering edifice will come tumbling down and everyone will be worse off for it.
Assuming it's your set that's reducing the quality of what you see, and not the transmitter that's transmitting reduced quality, you can quite legally build a circumvention device, since reducing the quality is not a right enjoyed by copyright holders under current legislation.
That's not to say that the current totalitarian regime in the US (and by extension the rest of the world) won't make it illegal at the drop of a "campaign contribution".
Conversely, what you consider to be data could also be argued to be a program. That MP3 file is a series of instructions to tell the MP3 interpreter how to construct something that resembles the original waveform. A MIDI file can contain loops - software of data?
You're really asking the wrong question. The question should be "Am I distributing anything that I didn't produce myself, and if so am I permitted to do so?" It doesn't matter whether it's software or data - if you're distributing someone else's copyright material, you need a license. I don't think a court would decide that a compiler write can claim copyright over the compiler's output, but library routines are a grey area.
Whatever happens, let this be a lesson - before you buy development tools, check whether their output can be used royalty free. If not, avoid these tools wherever possible.
Just my EUR 2.00 (nose-diving exchange rate) :-)
If you encrypt a message with a one-time pad, you can construct another one-time pad that will "decrypt" the message to anything you like - recipe for chocolate brownies, "evidence" to incriminate John Ashcroft, literally anything.
Well, you could use it to string up Sen. Hollings or one of the other "representatives" who support this
crap.
(Only kidding - death's too good for 'em)
"You are free to use this product as you please, as long as you wash it down the drain afterwards."
Why? When you "burn" the hydrogen to recover the
energy, guess what you get back?
Fun for the first 10 minutes, but it gets boring after that.
That's München to you, sonny
If you really don't know your HTML that well, you could get by with Muenchen at a pinch.
"50 Hours AOL-Linux Gratis" - after that, it wipes itself.
Testing
If you do happen to find a 5.25" CD, you can quite probably file it down, since, unlike those old-fashioned round black plastic things, the CD track starts in the middle and works outwards.
Companies get Legalese*. Private customers get
Greek
(* Official language of the Republic of Legalia,
a small and not-very-well-known island just off
the coast of Marketania, where, incidentally, the
majority of the population speaks Bullshit.)
The DOC files can contain executable content. It's
also rumoured that PDF files can too.
Can someone please remind me exactly which part of this alleged patent is non-obvious.
Anyway, FWIW, here is my reply to their request for comments (Cced to the dmca_discuss mailing list). Not that they'll take any notice of me, because I'm not a US citizen - but what the hell.
They are the only sane people in the UK Government (at least, the ones who bother to turn up & vote).