When I hear stories about legal battles, I am usually happy to say that Brazil does not have those kind of problems for two reasons. The first has to do with the fact that our court system is so incredibly slow and the second has to do with our laws being so ancient that new technologies are not usually covered by them.
To those developers that want keep working on their projects, I suggest learning Portuguese, saving a little money, and head over to our beloved country. Besides not worrying about being sued, I should say that people love foreigners (as opposed to the EU and US that hates them), and in Sao Paulo were I am from, the temperature is around 80F for a good part of the year and our economy did grow around 4% last year.
Come to Brazil my friends, I am sure you will love it.
I had a talk with a friend of mine of how people have a hard time already keeping up with simple day to day tasks, such as, as this article points out, using their cell phones responsively, and then how these same people would complain about their rights being invaded or their choices limited.
The truth about Brazil is that software licenses are the least of our problems. I suggest the reader a movie I recently rented from Blockbuster Video called BUS174. It is a documentary about a robbery that turned into kidnaping and it showed how the society turns their back constantly to social problems such as the street children or the fact that in 2001 none of the police officers in charge of the BUS174 situation had any training for 2 years.
Brazil right now is spear heading the UN peace keeping mission in Haiti. Now that is 100 times more stupid then paying whatever money to Microsoft, Oracle, or IBM. Not stupid because the situation in Haiti doesn't need some help, it does, but stupid because the entire city of Rio de Janeiro is being controlled by drug lords that even when behind bars are able to control their gangs. Stupid because the government created a federal security system, and the budget for that system was cut several times to the point of being just another idea that failed because of lack funds.
The forum that is being referred to in this article is a joke, if anyone wants to check out the craziness of it all, please check some of latest articles from one of the major newspapers in Brazil. You need to speak Portuguese to read it.
Companies are in for one reason, and that is to increase their profit. If giving something free to others helps increase their profit, they will do it. The difference between IBM and SUN, in my opinion, is that IBM is profiting from Linux and the Open Source community. Sun on the other hand is losing some of their consumers because of them. IBM is not a superior company then SUN in this specific area. Both companies are exactly the same, run by management that only cares to increase their operations. The Open Sourcing of Solaris 10 is just one of the ways SUN has to increase the level of investment on their Operating System but they do not support Linux or the open source community as they claim. IBM's support to Linux and the OS community cannot be placed on the same level because one is growing strong because of it, the other is becoming a victim of the movement.
What I find interesting about this whole issue with mp3's and the RIAA is that for years now, the RIAA and it's affiliates have contributed to the destruction of the morals in the US. By selling music that teach nothing more then violence, indiscriminate sex, and foul language. Now they come after their very consumers and ask them about their morals, amazing. When they were talking about child porn being found on Kazza, I wondered if they ever bothered to look at the Britney Spears video clips they were putting out.
I am amazed at the Slashdot crowd. She stole something (copyrighted material from the Net), got caught (by the RIAA) and was forced to pay for it. I bet next time she or her friends (or anyone that watched CNN today) thinks about downloading an mp3 file from Kazaa they will think of the consequences, and maybe decide that downloading might cost them more then the $19.99 they would pay on the store for the whole CD. That's how I see it. If you truly feel sorry for her, go ahead pay her bill.
I have only recently come across the freshrpms.net site, and I have been amazed at the work that has been there. The site helps the user to find, from a list of supported packages, the most recently rpm packages available for their systems. This site along with rpmfind.net, and tuxfind.net is what makes the RPM packaging system so successful.
I have on the past thought about changing distros, from Red Hat to lets say SUSE, Mandrake, Conectiva, etc, but I haven't mainly because of their support (at the time) for rpm packages was not very good.
Is RPM the best solution for the person who is looking to install software on their Linux box? I have my complaints, but since when does the best solution for a problem is the one most suited for the job?
With Ximian's Mono's project bringing the dot Net architecture to the Open Source arena, and Sun's failure to standardize Java, I wonder if Red Hat is making the right decision.
I agree with you in this. These people do not care that they are putting the company out of business with their pirating and forcing the government and law enforcement to restrain our free speech on the net.
I have recently dumped all my illegal CD's of music, games, video, and apps. To tell you the truth, I was a bit amazed at how much stuff I had. About 10 mp3 cd's (I have a mp3 player), 60 divx cd's, 10 game cd's, and about 10 app cd's.
I trashed the cd's because I felt like downloading them from the internet was the same as going to the store and walking away with the cd's without paying for it.
That was my reasoning for changing my attitude, but most people can always justify their behavior somehow.
I personally believe that college is more than going to classes, reading the books, doing the homework. College is about meeting people and being exposed to new ideas. That is why I don't believe online degrees (or homeschooling) are not a good alternative for high school or undergraduate students.
I say that because I have learned most about programming, and system administration because my friends were all interested in it. They helped to be harness my skills in those areas. I remember when one of them helped me to install Red Hat 5.2 and he gave me several books that he has purchased on Linux, so I could learn how to use it.
Not in computer science have I been influenced by my friends and teachers but also in the area of politics, history, human relations, and just about everything else you can think of.
I believe that had I gone to college, my world would be a lot smaller, not because I did not get a degree, and did not know Linear Algebra, but because I would be missing on all those ideas that I have been exposed through those people.
At my College, several of friends have thousands of mp3's on their computers, some they burn into CD's so they can listen on their cars or stereo systems the others they just leave on their computers for bragging rights. They spend hours and hours doing nothing but downloading mp3's and porn.
Those guys, from what I could gather, strongly believe that all music (maybe we should include games, music, books) should be given out for free. They do realize that someone is paying for their "free" stuff, but they just don't care who is it, as long as it is not them.
My friends have the need to hear the latest album from David Mathews but are not willing to pay the $19.99 for it. Now, if the person does not have the money for it, he can either wait until the price goes down, or save for a few weeks (no Mac Donald's for a week maybe?) Someone is paying for it, and that someone is you and me.
The school in consequence had to close all Kazza, Gnutella, and other P2P access on the network. That is in a way, restricts my ability to use those tools for legitimate purposes such as downloading the latest Red Hat ISO or some other free programs.
The music industry has a revenue loss due to the piracy, and local music shops are forced to close doors and laid off all of it's workers.
The bands start to slowly lose revenue and the rate of new talents making big will decrease for the music industry does not the cash to invest in new material.
Bear in mind, that this does not happen overnight, but something must be done for it to stop or we will all lose at the end.
If you download any material from the internet (mp3, divx, games, etc) that you have not paid for, you are stealing. Simple as that.
As with Operating Systems there are other alternatives from paying the fees associated with buying music. There are several bands that give their music away for free, go to them. Now, if you don't like their stuff, then, it's your problem, not mine or the RIAA.
If the internet transforms itself on the primary means of committing copyright infringement, it too should be censored, for no one as far as I know, like their goods being taken without pay.
Slashdot Mirror
Here is a sample of the Scan log.
When I hear stories about legal battles, I am usually happy to say that Brazil does not have those kind of problems for two reasons. The first has to do with the fact that our court system is so incredibly slow and the second has to do with our laws being so ancient that new technologies are not usually covered by them.
To those developers that want keep working on their projects, I suggest learning Portuguese, saving a little money, and head over to our beloved country. Besides not worrying about being sued, I should say that people love foreigners (as opposed to the EU and US that hates them), and in Sao Paulo were I am from, the temperature is around 80F for a good part of the year and our economy did grow around 4% last year.
Come to Brazil my friends, I am sure you will love it.
PS: Did I mentioned Mandriva?
I had a talk with a friend of mine of how people have a hard time already keeping up with simple day to day tasks, such as, as this article points out, using their cell phones responsively, and then how these same people would complain about their rights being invaded or their choices limited.
The truth about Brazil is that software licenses are the least of our problems. I suggest the reader a movie I recently rented from Blockbuster Video called BUS174. It is a documentary about a robbery that turned into kidnaping and it showed how the society turns their back constantly to social problems such as the street children or the fact that in 2001 none of the police officers in charge of the BUS174 situation had any training for 2 years.
Brazil right now is spear heading the UN peace keeping mission in Haiti. Now that is 100 times more stupid then paying whatever money to Microsoft, Oracle, or IBM. Not stupid because the situation in Haiti doesn't need some help, it does, but stupid because the entire city of Rio de Janeiro is being controlled by drug lords that even when behind bars are able to control their gangs. Stupid because the government created a federal security system, and the budget for that system was cut several times to the point of being just another idea that failed because of lack funds.
The forum that is being referred to in this article is a joke, if anyone wants to check out the craziness of it all, please check some of latest articles from one of the major newspapers in Brazil. You need to speak Portuguese to read it.
http://www.estadao.com.br/agestado
Companies are in for one reason, and that is to increase their profit. If giving something free to others helps increase their profit, they will do it.
The difference between IBM and SUN, in my opinion, is that IBM is profiting from Linux and the Open Source community. Sun on the other hand is losing some of their consumers because of them. IBM is not a superior company then SUN in this specific area. Both companies are exactly the same, run by management that only cares to increase their operations.
The Open Sourcing of Solaris 10 is just one of the ways SUN has to increase the level of investment on their Operating System but they do not support Linux or the open source community as they claim.
IBM's support to Linux and the OS community cannot be placed on the same level because one is growing strong because of it, the other is becoming a victim of the movement.
As of 10:18 pm EST, the site appears to have been hacked. Note of caution, don't click on the free torrents link.
Almost, better luck next time, if only I was using a faster provider...
I fell like that guy on the ebay commercial, that lost his bid because of a few seconds...
FIRST POST?
What I find interesting about this whole issue with mp3's and the RIAA is that for years now, the RIAA and it's affiliates have contributed to the destruction of the morals in the US. By selling music that teach nothing more then violence, indiscriminate sex, and foul language. Now they come after their very consumers and ask them about their morals, amazing.
When they were talking about child porn being found on Kazza, I wondered if they ever bothered to look at the Britney Spears video clips they were putting out.
I am amazed at the Slashdot crowd.
She stole something (copyrighted material from the Net), got caught (by the RIAA) and was forced to pay for it. I bet next time she or her friends (or anyone that watched CNN today) thinks about downloading an mp3 file from Kazaa they will think of the consequences, and maybe decide that downloading might cost them more then the $19.99 they would pay on the store for the whole CD.
That's how I see it.
If you truly feel sorry for her, go ahead pay her bill.
I just read on the conectiva linux site, their position on the SCO X IBM court case.
"There is no evidence that any piece of the Linux Kernel, from version 2.4 up, is of SCO intellectual property."
I just wonder if there is anyone out there that supports SCO in its claims.
I have only recently come across the freshrpms.net site, and I have been amazed at the work that has been there. The site helps the user to find, from a list of supported packages, the most recently rpm packages available for their systems. This site along with rpmfind.net, and tuxfind.net is what makes the RPM packaging system so successful.
I have on the past thought about changing distros, from Red Hat to lets say SUSE, Mandrake, Conectiva, etc, but I haven't mainly because of their support (at the time) for rpm packages was not very good.
Is RPM the best solution for the person who is looking to install software on their Linux box? I have my complaints, but since when does the best solution for a problem is the one most suited for the job?
With Ximian's Mono's project bringing the dot Net architecture to the Open Source arena, and Sun's failure to standardize Java, I wonder if Red Hat is making the right decision.
I agree with you in this. These people do not care that they are putting the company out of business with their pirating and forcing the government and law enforcement to restrain our free speech on the net.
I have recently dumped all my illegal CD's of music, games, video, and apps. To tell you the truth, I was a bit amazed at how much stuff I had. About 10 mp3 cd's (I have a mp3 player), 60 divx cd's, 10 game cd's, and about 10 app cd's.
I trashed the cd's because I felt like downloading them from the internet was the same as going to the store and walking away with the cd's without paying for it.
That was my reasoning for changing my attitude, but most people can always justify their behavior somehow.
I personally believe that college is more than going to classes, reading the books, doing the homework. College is about meeting people and being exposed to new ideas. That is why I don't believe online degrees (or homeschooling) are not a good alternative for high school or undergraduate students.
I say that because I have learned most about programming, and system administration because my friends were all interested in it. They helped to be harness my skills in those areas. I remember when one of them helped me to install Red Hat 5.2 and he gave me several books that he has purchased on Linux, so I could learn how to use it.
Not in computer science have I been influenced by my friends and teachers but also in the area of politics, history, human relations, and just about everything else you can think of.
I believe that had I gone to college, my world would be a lot smaller, not because I did not get a degree, and did not know Linear Algebra, but because I would be missing on all those ideas that I have been exposed through those people.
At my College, several of friends have thousands of mp3's on their computers, some they burn into CD's so they can listen on their cars or stereo systems the others they just leave on their computers for bragging rights. They spend hours and hours doing nothing but downloading mp3's and porn.
Those guys, from what I could gather, strongly believe that all music (maybe we should include games, music, books) should be given out for free. They do realize that someone is paying for their "free" stuff, but they just don't care who is it, as long as it is not them.
My friends have the need to hear the latest album from David Mathews but are not willing to pay the $19.99 for it. Now, if the person does not have the money for it, he can either wait until the price goes down, or save for a few weeks (no Mac Donald's for a week maybe?) Someone is paying for it, and that someone is you and me.
The school in consequence had to close all Kazza, Gnutella, and other P2P access on the network. That is in a way, restricts my ability to use those tools for legitimate purposes such as downloading the latest Red Hat ISO or some other free programs.
The music industry has a revenue loss due to the piracy, and local music shops are forced to close doors and laid off all of it's workers.
The bands start to slowly lose revenue and the rate of new talents making big will decrease for the music industry does not the cash to invest in new material.
Bear in mind, that this does not happen overnight, but something must be done for it to stop or we will all lose at the end.
Since when has stealing become acceptable?
If you download any material from the internet (mp3, divx, games, etc) that you have not paid for, you are stealing. Simple as that.
As with Operating Systems there are other alternatives from paying the fees associated with buying music. There are several bands that give their music away for free, go to them. Now, if you don't like their stuff, then, it's your problem, not mine or the RIAA.
If the internet transforms itself on the primary means of committing copyright infringement, it too should be censored, for no one as far as I know, like their goods being taken without pay.
Sometimes, the truth is very simple.