Ask a lawyer if you should pay a lawyer to do something for you, and what do you think the answer will be?
Be smart, just get on with it. Axiomatically, you'll only become a target for a lawsuit when you're already successful. You can pay a lawyer then, if you like.
Or alternatively, pay an accountant. Set the company up so all the liabilities are here and all the assets are there. Ignore patent trolls, ignore any court judgements, and if and when anyone with a badge does ever come to collect, point them at the Pile-O'-Debt and tell them to knock themselves out.
This isn't theoretical - I've already been though a few employers who were set up in exactly that way. One of them simply 'phoenixed' the liable part of the business overnight: rename it, put it into administration, start a new business with the old business' name, and "re-hire" all the employees. Only the company number changed. Apparently perfectly legal stuff, at least in the UK.
And we might not always tell you what you want to hear.
Back in The Day, I wrote a borg client ("Rogerborg") for Netrek which used a man-in-the-middle attack (and a bit of library overriding) to spoof the RSA authentication scheme used to detect blessed client binaries - Netrek was decades ahead of its time with regard to security.
It was a great learning experience, and convinced me that trusting the client is futile; there are always more people out there trying to crack it than you have developers to protect it. I kind assumed that in the 18 or so years since then that lesson would have been learned, but even to this day, we still see game after game released that try to play whack-a-hack on the client side.
Please take it from me: you can't win that fight. And that counts double if you have to pay developers to effectively fight against the enthusiasm of your playerbase. The more successful your game, the more potential crackers you have.
Saying "Yeah, put some checks in the binary, or ship it with Punkbuster and we'll fix it later."? That's a great strategy if you're planning for failure.
Secure the servers, come up a network protocol that designs out the ability for cracked clients to profit, and you're done. If your game doesn't lend itself to that design - like a twitch FPS where an aimbot can get an auto-kill - then bad news: You. Are. Screwed. Just try to make your costs back before your client gets raped and your game collapses under the weight of the bots.
Doing it, getting angry about it, either way: fail. Total, utter fail. You're no different to the 12 year olds h4xx0rz1ng Call of Duty, or the other 12 year old screaming about OMFG h4xx0rz. It's a game. Grow up, get over it, find a grown up activity where cheating gets you punched in the throat.
This has been a public service announcement from your neighbourhood adult who's about to go nail his wife in three orifices. Try to focus on that, just for one second. Three orifices, in any order I feel like. How'd you like that, Grand Master k1ll54l0tZ?
...then forking its own version (whether it's Android or a do-over on top of Linux) is like me moaning about gas prices then buying a Hummer just to stick it to the Man.
Wait, Florian Mueller? Didn't he hold a young girl down in 1990 so Glenn Beck could rape and murder her? Now, I don't think he did, but if he didn't, why does he refuse to deny it? Again, I'm not accusing him of doing it, but it's a question that I'm sure many people want answered.
Of course, we can't all run on [filtered used motor oil]
Are you sure? I've been here a while, and every second article is full of Slashdotters claiming that we can all live like kings off of each others' waste products in a giant mouth-to-anus daisychain.
I mean, who am I going to believe? A chap talking common sense, or a mob of filthy penniless dumpster diving idealists spouting their wordly wisdom from the warmth of momma's basement? You may want to check your figures.
Anywhere between 25% to 50% better, and modern turbodiesels are now decently refined and pull like trains. Also remember that fuel is dispensed by volume, and diesel oil is denser than gasoline. It really should cost a fair bit more for the same volume, it's only been cheaper historically because demand for automotive diesel was lower than for gasoline.
And to think, I saw the revolution start right here, with this post on Slashdot! Truly a story to tell my 8 armed mutant grandkids as we huddle round the tire-fire in our abandoned subway caves.
And I don't believe for a second that [...] disagreeing with a law morally entitles somebody to break it.
Yup, all laws are absolutely justified, and none of this would have happened if Rosa Parks would have shut up and sat her black ass down at the back of the bus where she belonged.
Damn, just ran out of +1 Insightful, Article Submitter and Editards Are A Bunch of Marketdroid Cretins Who Don't Know The Difference Between An Engine And A Brand ratings points.
I make that 4.37% + 3.93% = 8.3% for Bing, the "search engine".
What you can do with your own PS3 has never been at issue. The DMCA prohibits you from providing your circumvention device to others. Connecting your modified device to Sony's network may breach a contract that you agreed to. But nobody, ever, has been sued or prosecuted simply for modifying their own device in the privacy of their own home.
Nothing in the DMCA prevents you from developing or using a circumvention device on your own property. It prohibits you from providing that device to others.
If you want to get a bad law changed, the first step is find out what the law actually is. Clamouring for rights that you already enjoy just makes you look like a mental.
We never thought to build shore defences because our Scienticians assured Us that if We stood on the shoreline and shouted "HALT!" loudly enough, the tide would never come in.
Effective immediately, Our new Oceanic Evition policy is to execute any of Our subjects caught with damp feet. We trust that this shall bring an end to this sordid defiance of Our divine authority.
Go anywhere in the far east and try to even find a dumbphone. Everyone and their grandma over there is packing a smartphone, as an alternative to a PC. Most of them run BREW, the most popular OS you've never heard of.
Then that's not science, it's a bullshit claim by one guy who for all we know throw down some rocks in his back yard and took a picture of them. [citation needed]
I would argue that the iPad UX is the most innovative
Innovative? Well, OK. I'm sure it's purely co-incidental that the chap who led development of it bungied briefly into Picsel Technologies in the early 2000s, said "Oh, you're selling a unified multimedia 'UX', mostly to Far East markets that North Americans will never have heard of, how interesting...[scribble scribble]... well, I'm off to Apple now, kthnxbye".
Presumably "global" sales ignores the hundred million or so essentially disposable BREW-based smartphones that Samsung et al churn out in the far east every year?
Slashdot Mirror
Ask a lawyer if you should pay a lawyer to do something for you, and what do you think the answer will be?
Be smart, just get on with it. Axiomatically, you'll only become a target for a lawsuit when you're already successful. You can pay a lawyer then, if you like.
Or alternatively, pay an accountant. Set the company up so all the liabilities are here and all the assets are there. Ignore patent trolls, ignore any court judgements, and if and when anyone with a badge does ever come to collect, point them at the Pile-O'-Debt and tell them to knock themselves out.
This isn't theoretical - I've already been though a few employers who were set up in exactly that way. One of them simply 'phoenixed' the liable part of the business overnight: rename it, put it into administration, start a new business with the old business' name, and "re-hire" all the employees. Only the company number changed. Apparently perfectly legal stuff, at least in the UK.
And we might not always tell you what you want to hear.
Back in The Day, I wrote a borg client ("Rogerborg") for Netrek which used a man-in-the-middle attack (and a bit of library overriding) to spoof the RSA authentication scheme used to detect blessed client binaries - Netrek was decades ahead of its time with regard to security.
It was a great learning experience, and convinced me that trusting the client is futile; there are always more people out there trying to crack it than you have developers to protect it. I kind assumed that in the 18 or so years since then that lesson would have been learned, but even to this day, we still see game after game released that try to play whack-a-hack on the client side.
Please take it from me: you can't win that fight. And that counts double if you have to pay developers to effectively fight against the enthusiasm of your playerbase. The more successful your game, the more potential crackers you have.
Saying "Yeah, put some checks in the binary, or ship it with Punkbuster and we'll fix it later."? That's a great strategy if you're planning for failure.
Secure the servers, come up a network protocol that designs out the ability for cracked clients to profit, and you're done. If your game doesn't lend itself to that design - like a twitch FPS where an aimbot can get an auto-kill - then bad news: You. Are. Screwed. Just try to make your costs back before your client gets raped and your game collapses under the weight of the bots.
This has been a public service announcement from your neighbourhood adult who's about to go nail his wife in three orifices. Try to focus on that, just for one second. Three orifices, in any order I feel like. How'd you like that, Grand Master k1ll54l0tZ?
...then forking its own version (whether it's Android or a do-over on top of Linux) is like me moaning about gas prices then buying a Hummer just to stick it to the Man.
Except Novell. Oh, and Google. Filtering down to a company near your in 3... 2...
Ten Starfleet Demerits. You're going to be haunted by Gene Roddenberry's ghost for that one.
Wait, Florian Mueller? Didn't he hold a young girl down in 1990 so Glenn Beck could rape and murder her? Now, I don't think he did, but if he didn't, why does he refuse to deny it? Again, I'm not accusing him of doing it, but it's a question that I'm sure many people want answered.
And bad things happened to him?
Well, good. Dicks need a solid pounding from time to time, to remind them that throwing down has consequences online as well as in meatspace.
If he's got a problem with it, he can sue them, which will just prove how much of a dick he really is.
Are you sure? I've been here a while, and every second article is full of Slashdotters claiming that we can all live like kings off of each others' waste products in a giant mouth-to-anus daisychain.
I mean, who am I going to believe? A chap talking common sense, or a mob of filthy penniless dumpster diving idealists spouting their wordly wisdom from the warmth of momma's basement? You may want to check your figures.
Anywhere between 25% to 50% better, and modern turbodiesels are now decently refined and pull like trains. Also remember that fuel is dispensed by volume, and diesel oil is denser than gasoline. It really should cost a fair bit more for the same volume, it's only been cheaper historically because demand for automotive diesel was lower than for gasoline.
And to think, I saw the revolution start right here, with this post on Slashdot! Truly a story to tell my 8 armed mutant grandkids as we huddle round the tire-fire in our abandoned subway caves.
Jumbo shrimp!
You keep saying "game". I do not think that word means (only) what you think it means.
For 2 years, rather than 5. Do the maths.
Thank SCIENCE! we finally know the answer to that question. Research money well spent.
Yup, all laws are absolutely justified, and none of this would have happened if Rosa Parks would have shut up and sat her black ass down at the back of the bus where she belonged.
Damn, just ran out of +1 Insightful, Article Submitter and Editards Are A Bunch of Marketdroid Cretins Who Don't Know The Difference Between An Engine And A Brand ratings points.
I make that 4.37% + 3.93% = 8.3% for Bing, the "search engine".
What you can do with your own PS3 has never been at issue. The DMCA prohibits you from providing your circumvention device to others. Connecting your modified device to Sony's network may breach a contract that you agreed to. But nobody, ever, has been sued or prosecuted simply for modifying their own device in the privacy of their own home.
Nothing in the DMCA prevents you from developing or using a circumvention device on your own property. It prohibits you from providing that device to others.
If you want to get a bad law changed, the first step is find out what the law actually is. Clamouring for rights that you already enjoy just makes you look like a mental.
Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to misquote them.
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
We never thought to build shore defences because our Scienticians assured Us that if We stood on the shoreline and shouted "HALT!" loudly enough, the tide would never come in.
Effective immediately, Our new Oceanic Evition policy is to execute any of Our subjects caught with damp feet. We trust that this shall bring an end to this sordid defiance of Our divine authority.
Go anywhere in the far east and try to even find a dumbphone. Everyone and their grandma over there is packing a smartphone, as an alternative to a PC. Most of them run BREW, the most popular OS you've never heard of.
Really, the North American market is a niche.
What's that you say?
Then that's not science, it's a bullshit claim by one guy who for all we know throw down some rocks in his back yard and took a picture of them. [citation needed]
Innovative? Well, OK. I'm sure it's purely co-incidental that the chap who led development of it bungied briefly into Picsel Technologies in the early 2000s, said "Oh, you're selling a unified multimedia 'UX', mostly to Far East markets that North Americans will never have heard of, how interesting...[scribble scribble]... well, I'm off to Apple now, kthnxbye".
Presumably "global" sales ignores the hundred million or so essentially disposable BREW-based smartphones that Samsung et al churn out in the far east every year?