When Tony Blair (recent prime minister) and some of his cronies were recently interviewed by the police, they did not have their DNA sample taken - when an ordinary person would have had theirs taken.
Really make sure that you are right, ie something much better than "this has the same name as a GPL bit of code"
Write to the company - write to the Managing Director or CEO
If they do nothing, write and tell them what you will do next
Write to their auditors and the stock exchange were they are listed; point out that there is a big risk that
their flagship product may need to be pulled because of copyright infringement. Say that you have told the company and that they are hiding
this important information from the stock exchange.
Keep a copy of all correspondence, better still post it on a web site with the companie's name plastered all over it (so that
the search engines find it).
OK: lots of fun about having to provide copies of L1 cache, etc, but what the judge is saying is:
you know that the information in RAM is likely be of interest for an X, Y, Z investigation, so keep it
What is worrying me is this: I visit some website at a HTTPS url or I login somewhere using ssh. Later the cops say "give us the SSL keys for that exchange". Currently I can say "firefox/ssh generates these keys on the fly, I never knew what they were.". But because I ought to know that the SSL keys might be of interest - I should have kept them, I should run a browser/ssh_client that keeps this info, and perhaps the server ought to do the same thing as well.
I fear that the above scenario is not that far off.
I gave up buying Gateway years ago. The machines were OK, but if something went wrong getting it fixed (and I was quite willing to pay) was a nightmare. Their administrators were incompetent, disinterested and I lost large amounts of time trying to get simple things done.
This can only be a good thing for customers. Gateway: RIP - at last!
There is no point to M$ in fixing the issues, here is why:
The issues are mainly parts of the spec that are not properly defined anywhere. If M$ were to fix the issues then others would be able to implement (read/write) the file format. If others can implement the file format then M$ looses it's main strangle hold on word processors. So it makes no sense at all for M$ to spill the beans and allow other to compete on a level playing field.
Let's say that M$ does properly specify the format, what else can it do ?
Change the format used by M$ Word to make it incompatible with OOXML - and then blame the competition for getting it wrong.
Does this mean that moving to SP1 makes old hardware unusable ?
So will people be able to upgrade to SP1 and still keep their current hardware and games ?
I also wonder if there is a license change; charge hardware vendors more or make it unusable with FLOSS or something.
Kiddie porn, music files, unlicensed software ? Who knows ? Of course no one will believe Mr Tamm when he says that this stuff was not on his PC when it left his house.
The purpose of the raid is as much to deter others who are thinking of exposing government wrongdoing as it is to punnish Mr Tamm.
Yes: people should know better; training should be better. However with 100,000 employees there will be many who can be 'bought', they may have finance problems (drugs, gambling, divorce,...). For a bit of cash you could get the info that you want without having to get access to internal systems and know any passwords.
This is quite the wrong way around... if there is a price difference it should favour the graduates that we need. In the UK that means more Medics, more engineers & scientists - so charge these students less.
By charging less for less useful subjects such as history we will end up with a surfeit of people with the wrong degrees - people not suited to the jobs that we, as a country, need.
This is where government intervention/financial_support is needed for the long term good of society -- I can't see it happening since the payoff is way beyond the next election.
If that if a victory I can't imagine what a defeat would look like.
Defeat would be Linux taking hold as the Chinese desktop.
Microsoft might not make money out of China, but the hope to prevent a loss of mindshare - which could disasterous for its business in the rest of the world.
I have it on good authority that Michael took Mark out to dinner and negotiated a huge 80% discount on the list price of Ubuntu. This was on the basis of the discount that Bill gave him when he took him out to dinner.
All a codec is is a way of encoding some content, so as long as the codec decoding s/ware is legal (ie not ripped off someone's copyright) then I cannot see what the problem is. Oh, I suppose that if you live somewhere like the USA where people can patent a format then you may need to think about it.
What is important is the content - ie not ripping off someone's copyright for the piece of music, film,... That I don't do. If I can't obtain it legally then I won't play it -- I might not like the copyright on music (being for so many years and all that) but I will respect it.
See what I mean about the different between format & content ?
One phrase that I read many times was ''original compositions''. Part of the problem with that is that it takes time to build up a sizable repertoire of really good music. This makes it difficult for these guys to start.
It strikes me that all these performers could put their own original compositions up for any other performer to play - without payment. In the long term enough popular would be written for people to have a good evening without having to pay extortion. Who knows - this ''cafe music'' could become popular enough to start hitting the sales of the record labels -- which would be very sad:-)
''Without payment'' does not mean that there should not be acknowlegement of the composer. So composers may gain by getting better known.
Sorry - fact is sillier than sarcasm: A couple of years ago there was a story that schools/playgroups in Sweden (or similar) were not allowing ''Happy Birthday'' because of copyright reasons - and taxi drivers were not allowed to have music on in the cab.
Slashdot Mirror
One law for us and another for them.
Keep a copy of all correspondence, better still post it on a web site with the companie's name plastered all over it (so that the search engines find it).
Actually I am a Brit -- it works (or doesn't - depending on your point of view) the same way here.
Generally the law follows the money. If you have more money than the other guy, you will probably win. That is why the legal system sucks.
and I have just the implement .
I fear that the above scenario is not that far off.
At a cost of about $9,000 per kilogramme to get something into orbit with the shuttle, is this really the best use of tax payers' money ?
This can only be a good thing for customers. Gateway: RIP - at last!
Here is the subject material for a new story.
The issues are mainly parts of the spec that are not properly defined anywhere. If M$ were to fix the issues then others would be able to implement (read/write) the file format. If others can implement the file format then M$ looses it's main strangle hold on word processors. So it makes no sense at all for M$ to spill the beans and allow other to compete on a level playing field.
Let's say that M$ does properly specify the format, what else can it do ?
I can see Stephen King starting on a new novel ...
I also wonder if there is a license change; charge hardware vendors more or make it unusable with FLOSS or something.
The purpose of the raid is as much to deter others who are thinking of exposing government wrongdoing as it is to punnish Mr Tamm.
Yes: people should know better; training should be better. However with 100,000 employees there will be many who can be 'bought', they may have finance problems (drugs, gambling, divorce, ...). For a bit of cash you could get the info that you want without having to get access to internal systems and know any passwords.
By charging less for less useful subjects such as history we will end up with a surfeit of people with the wrong degrees - people not suited to the jobs that we, as a country, need.
This is where government intervention/financial_support is needed for the long term good of society -- I can't see it happening since the payoff is way beyond the next election.
Defeat would be Linux taking hold as the Chinese desktop. Microsoft might not make money out of China, but the hope to prevent a loss of mindshare - which could disasterous for its business in the rest of the world.
Nice to know that during his rock years he didn't fry his brain with acid and is still able to do the work to get a PhD.
Now: 80% discount on $0 is ....
You get the idea.
Could I set up a business in the UK selling early Elvis Presley music without paying Elvis Presley Enterprises ?
What is important is the content - ie not ripping off someone's copyright for the piece of music, film, ... That I don't do. If I can't obtain it legally then I won't play it -- I might not like the copyright on music (being for so many years and all that) but I will respect it.
See what I mean about the different between format & content ?
nipping off to the pub for a quick one of the missus works for the police ... she will know exactly where you have been :-(
Then: you are using Linux, what have you got to hide ?
The next step is: Only criminals use Linux
I have just realised: I am typing this at a Linux box. I had better go down and turn myself in at the cop shop.
It strikes me that all these performers could put their own original compositions up for any other performer to play - without payment. In the long term enough popular would be written for people to have a good evening without having to pay extortion. Who knows - this ''cafe music'' could become popular enough to start hitting the sales of the record labels -- which would be very sad :-)
''Without payment'' does not mean that there should not be acknowlegement of the composer. So composers may gain by getting better known.
Barmy.
The celebrated British artist drew one of his comic sketches exactly about this during the 1914-18 war.