I'm going to stand in populated areas holding up signs that says "Fritz is a Ditz". I live in South Carolina, so hopefully when he comes up for reelection that phrase will stick in people's minds.
Civil disobedience would be to use Microsoft Office on your laptop and desktop.
If I'm not mistaken, the new license agreements let you use it on both your laptop and desktop as long as they will not be used both at the same time. Well, at least that's what a Microsoft rep said at the Office XP launch.
Why is Blizzard trying to shut down servers that emulate Battle.net?
Servers that emulate Battle.net facilitate software piracy of Blizzard products by circumventing Blizzard's authentication code. Blizzard products are intellectual property, and we are well within our legal rights to protect our products from software piracy.
Bnetd only emulates your server. The authentication code only allows someone to play games on Battle.net. Since the game isn't being played on Battle.net, this point makes no sense. Anyone can copy your games and use the same keys to play single player mode, with or without a server emulator.
How do CD keys help reduce piracy?
Blizzard uses two main methods to combat piracy: disc-based copy protection and CD keys. As part of the login process, Battle.net authenticates the user's CD key and prevents people from logging in with the same key or an invalid key.
So you're admitting that the CD key only prevents people from playing on Battle.net, and does nothing to prevent someone from violating the copyright by just playing single player modes.
Why doesn't Blizzard provide facilities that enable these emulators to authenticate CD keys through Battle.net?
In order for us to keep our proprietary CD-key algorithms secure, we cannot allow outside servers to query for the validity of CD keys.
Your crypto-algorithms aren't very good are they?
What about software that hasn't been released yet? Wouldn't it be better to have as many people testing the beta version of Warcraft III as possible, even if they are playing on non-Battle.net servers?
The primary purposes of the Warcraft III Beta are to get play-balance feedback and to test our Battle.net servers. Our servers aren't tested if people are playing the Beta on rogue servers. Additionally, the Warcraft III Beta is not intended to be a product demo; when testing ends, we need the ability to terminate the Beta's functionality. Rogue servers eliminate our ability to expire beta versions of our products.
This has nothing to do with bnetd. The Bnetd project did not have support for Warcraft 3 yet. Those were deviant trees being developed by underground developers, and those aren't going to be so easy to shut down.
What about the hobbyists who are not pirating your software but just want to use these servers as an alternative to Battle.net?
Unfortunately, software pirates have spoiled this situation for hobbyists. We are constantly working to improve Battle.net, and we sincerely hope that one day, no one will see any reason to seek alternatives to Battle.net for playing Blizzard games.
You're admitting that this software was not made to violate your copyright protection. I'm hoping this will be used against you if this goes to court. Unfortunately, it was your own fault Bnetd had to be developed anyway, since your Battle.net servers don't seem to be able to handle the loads.
Your games sell millions of copies. Why do you care if a few people pirate your software?
The sales success of a product should not exclude it from laws intended to protect intellectual property. Software piracy needs to be combated at all levels, and at Blizzard we intend to do our part to fight illegal distribution of copyrighted media.
Bnetd does not facilitate the distribution of your media, it only allows people an alternative to Battle.net. CD burners facilitate the distribution of your media, but I don't think you're going to get very far going after them.
You should just admit you made a mistake and recant the DMCA charge. You are obviously wrong, and have shown much ill will to both the Open Source and Gaming communities. Please reconsider your actions before people start boycotting all Blizzard software.
Well, it wouldn't be illegal to sell someone a page of links to googles cache. Besides, you're missing the point that the data doesn't actually leave their servers.
Such that they would be designed to do things of this nature, all purpose reusable engineering kits.
Legos + PVC Cement + Spray Paint should work nicely for when you decide it's your final prototype. Otherwise, Lego just needs to make monotone lego sets.
KDE 3.0 has plenty of new features. However, I think they should work on fixing up the Klipboard. That's one thing Windows has I wish KDE had... a good clipboard system. I also hope they don't screw up Konqueror with the Smart "window.open" Javascript policy. Right now, I love being able to turn off those X10 pop-ups.
The first thing that came to my mind when reading this was "So What! People can do with their free time what they want!" Really though, if I'd rather play Unreal Tournament than go bowling, that's my own business.
I don't care, I use Mandrake Linux. Good thing the French don't like big American companies.. the last thing I want to see is MS Mandrake when Microsoft decides to counter AOL.
What else? These are going to be two heavyweights battling it out. Hopefully AOL wins. Yes, they are lame, but they will still have linux! [zealot? me? yes!]
As far as I can tell Microsoft could make their own linux distro too.
In case anyone missed this story, there is a global unique identifier for every user of Windows Media Player (just about everyone who uses Windows). This can be used to track you with a simple javascript... not a good thing for privacy. In response, I made a little utility to modify that identifier. It changes it to a nice, little message for the guys in Redmond. If a lot of people use it, then it's not exactly unique any more. Cheers!
I went ahead and wrote a program for the people who want to get rid of the unique identifier in WMP. You can grab it here. Of course, it does change the identifier to a message for microsoft... can you figure it out? =)
Well, I couldn't really get away since I work as a Delphi Developer for a living. I did send them a letter though expressing my disappointment, and letting them know I was thinking about not using their products anymore.
If you're having problems, fix it yourself. That's what open source is about. God only knows how many 3rd party products I had to patch up myself (ReportBuilder, a spellchecker, etc).
Why don't companies take a proper stance and treat the Internet as a seperate entity than a country? I can easily see rights being given for distribution over the internet and a different company being given rights to distribute in real world areas.
Wopuldn't it be eiser if they just tried to patent their original source code.
Because you copyright sourcecode. That would be the same as patenting a book. Instead, you patent the process. I'm amazed there hasn't been an author (such as Steven King) patent his/her story-making process.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm going to stand in populated areas holding up signs that says "Fritz is a Ditz". I live in South Carolina, so hopefully when he comes up for reelection that phrase will stick in people's minds.
I'm going to take the 50 bucks or so I would have spent on Warcraft 3, and donate it to EFF specifically for fighting Blizzard.
Civil disobedience would be to use Microsoft Office on your laptop and desktop.
If I'm not mistaken, the new license agreements let you use it on both your laptop and desktop as long as they will not be used both at the same time. Well, at least that's what a Microsoft rep said at the Office XP launch.
Go to their website, the picture of the globe in the upper right corner is showing North America, not China.
Why is Blizzard trying to shut down servers that emulate Battle.net?
Servers that emulate Battle.net facilitate software piracy of Blizzard products by circumventing Blizzard's authentication code. Blizzard products are intellectual property, and we are well within our legal rights to protect our products from software piracy.
Bnetd only emulates your server. The authentication code only allows someone to play games on Battle.net. Since the game isn't being played on Battle.net, this point makes no sense. Anyone can copy your games and use the same keys to play single player mode, with or without a server emulator.
How do CD keys help reduce piracy?
Blizzard uses two main methods to combat piracy: disc-based copy protection and CD keys. As part of the login process, Battle.net authenticates the user's CD key and prevents people from logging in with the same key or an invalid key.
So you're admitting that the CD key only prevents people from playing on Battle.net, and does nothing to prevent someone from violating the copyright by just playing single player modes.
Why doesn't Blizzard provide facilities that enable these emulators to authenticate CD keys through Battle.net?
In order for us to keep our proprietary CD-key algorithms secure, we cannot allow outside servers to query for the validity of CD keys.
Your crypto-algorithms aren't very good are they?
What about software that hasn't been released yet? Wouldn't it be better to have as many people testing the beta version of Warcraft III as possible, even if they are playing on non-Battle.net servers?
The primary purposes of the Warcraft III Beta are to get play-balance feedback and to test our Battle.net servers. Our servers aren't tested if people are playing the Beta on rogue servers. Additionally, the Warcraft III Beta is not intended to be a product demo; when testing ends, we need the ability to terminate the Beta's functionality. Rogue servers eliminate our ability to expire beta versions of our products.
This has nothing to do with bnetd. The Bnetd project did not have support for Warcraft 3 yet. Those were deviant trees being developed by underground developers, and those aren't going to be so easy to shut down.
What about the hobbyists who are not pirating your software but just want to use these servers as an alternative to Battle.net?
Unfortunately, software pirates have spoiled this situation for hobbyists. We are constantly working to improve Battle.net, and we sincerely hope that one day, no one will see any reason to seek alternatives to Battle.net for playing Blizzard games.
You're admitting that this software was not made to violate your copyright protection. I'm hoping this will be used against you if this goes to court. Unfortunately, it was your own fault Bnetd had to be developed anyway, since your Battle.net servers don't seem to be able to handle the loads.
Your games sell millions of copies. Why do you care if a few people pirate your software?
The sales success of a product should not exclude it from laws intended to protect intellectual property. Software piracy needs to be combated at all levels, and at Blizzard we intend to do our part to fight illegal distribution of copyrighted media.
Bnetd does not facilitate the distribution of your media, it only allows people an alternative to Battle.net. CD burners facilitate the distribution of your media, but I don't think you're going to get very far going after them.
You should just admit you made a mistake and recant the DMCA charge. You are obviously wrong, and have shown much ill will to both the Open Source and Gaming communities. Please reconsider your actions before people start boycotting all Blizzard software.
Sincerely,
Christopher Brian Eargle
I want to know how these guys knew what was in the box? Have we reverted to Soviet style reading people's mail?
Well, it wouldn't be illegal to sell someone a page of links to googles cache. Besides, you're missing the point that the data doesn't actually leave their servers.
Such that they would be designed to do things of this nature, all purpose reusable engineering kits.
Legos + PVC Cement + Spray Paint should work nicely for when you decide it's your final prototype. Otherwise, Lego just needs to make monotone lego sets.
Besides KDE has Klipper, Windows has Clippy - nuff said
True, but last I heard Clippy was looking for a job.
KDE 3.0 has plenty of new features. However, I think they should work on fixing up the Klipboard. That's one thing Windows has I wish KDE had... a good clipboard system. I also hope they don't screw up Konqueror with the Smart "window.open" Javascript policy. Right now, I love being able to turn off those X10 pop-ups.
I hired this team of evil monkeys.
It's going to be called Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Clones.
Since when is converting the alphabet to its base4 numeric value considered encryption?
Hey, MPAA if you're reading this, this would be a perfect replacement for CSS!
If Microsoft is smart, they'll make the XBox have DVR capabilities using technology from their UltimateTV line.
The first thing that came to my mind when reading this was "So What! People can do with their free time what they want!"
Really though, if I'd rather play Unreal Tournament than go bowling, that's my own business.
I don't care, I use Mandrake Linux. Good thing the French don't like big American companies.. the last thing I want to see is MS Mandrake when Microsoft decides to counter AOL.
Seems to me they feel it's a good way to control people. If the citizens never knew it existed, how are they going to complain on it being censored.
What else? These are going to be two heavyweights battling it out. Hopefully AOL wins. Yes, they are lame, but they will still have linux! [zealot? me? yes!]
As far as I can tell Microsoft could make their own linux distro too.
In case anyone missed this story, there is a global unique identifier for every user of Windows Media Player (just about everyone who uses Windows). This can be used to track you with a simple javascript... not a good thing for privacy. In response, I made a little utility to modify that identifier. It changes it to a nice, little message for the guys in Redmond. If a lot of people use it, then it's not exactly unique any more. Cheers!
I went ahead and wrote a program for the people who want to get rid of the unique identifier in WMP. You can grab it here. Of course, it does change the identifier to a message for microsoft... can you figure it out? =)
Well, I couldn't really get away since I work as a Delphi Developer for a living. I did send them a letter though expressing my disappointment, and letting them know I was thinking about not using their products anymore.
If you're having problems, fix it yourself. That's what open source is about. God only knows how many 3rd party products I had to patch up myself (ReportBuilder, a spellchecker, etc).
For some reason you have a space in the URL. How about you just format the thing? Click here for the story.
Why don't companies take a proper stance and treat the Internet as a seperate entity than a country? I can easily see rights being given for distribution over the internet and a different company being given rights to distribute in real world areas.
Wopuldn't it be eiser if they just tried to patent their original source code.
Because you copyright sourcecode. That would be the same as patenting a book. Instead, you patent the process. I'm amazed there hasn't been an author (such as Steven King) patent his/her story-making process.