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User: ex+pope+john

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  1. This may not be enforcable in Australia on Microsoft EULA stokes crusade · · Score: 1
    We have a trade practices act that in Sec 47 - Exclusive Dealing, makes unenforcable any agreement that restricts the use of a competitors goods or services as a condition of use of the vendors goods or services. That's a real brief overview of a long complicated section but you get the idea.

    So for instance, if MS say to me that as a condition of my buying (or licencing) Outlook, I cannot buy or licence Eudora Pro then it is unenforcable.

    You'd think it would extend to the EULA situation but the law talks about 'competitor' a lot so any legal argument about free software might revolve around whether or not there is a 'competitor' (even if there is a competitive product that's free, that might not be enough).

    I think the whole thing is an exercise in FUD around the 'viral' tag which on reflection might have been a really bad choice of words as far as the public are concerned.

  2. Re:heh on Building Your Own Air Chiller · · Score: 1
    Am I the only one who read it as "maybe you'll have better luck then I (will have some better luck)

  3. Re:space-flight training? on Three Russian Space Shot Deaths-- Pre-Gagarin? · · Score: 1
    No but doing all those things after training makes you a hero.

    Doing all those things without training makes you a fool?

    Ummm, did I get that around the right way?

  4. Re:Better solution on The Three Hat Problem · · Score: 1

    i think 87.5 - 12.5 equals 75 is what i think but im not a mathematician just an accountant. in para two you say their solution generated a loss if all 3 hats were the same colour (they used red) then you generate a win except when all three hats are the same colour (blue). what do you expect to happen? i am failrly sure that the probability doesn't change depending on the actual colour of the hat.

  5. Re:Play monte hall! on The Three Hat Problem · · Score: 1
    and you're failing miserably at it too, aren't you.

  6. Re: 5th amendment protection on Is Encryption Really Secure? · · Score: 1

    You are lucky then, The new anti-everything to do with computers law in the UK does I understand cotain provisions to make it an offence to not provide a password or passphrase to files that have been seized. I suppose like contempt of court only in the law, not just the court rules.

  7. Re:The issue that matters on Hailstorm: Changing Society's Privacy Infrastructure · · Score: 1
    That is exactly the point. All the dicks who say "you don't like it don't use it" avoid the point that the choice is not there to make in any practical sense for many people either through ignorance of the issues or simply a lack of alternatives.

    And even if we had alternatives we can still argue that what they are trying to achieve is immoral illegal or fattening.

    If however you believe that anything goes anytime anywhere etc then we aren't even having the same conversation so contributions are useless.

  8. Re:Haven't we had enough of them already? on Hailstorm: Changing Society's Privacy Infrastructure · · Score: 1

    then lemme see you stick your left elbow in your right ear.

  9. Re:So, I'm buying a license... on The DMCA Vs. Small Developers · · Score: 1
    A lot of shrinkwrap software comes on a CD in a sealed package that must be opened and the seal refers to the printed licence enclosed in the box.

    The seal says if you break the seal you are assumed to have agreed to the licence.

    It will also say if you don't like that you should return the software for a full refund (though I suspect the store will charge a restocking fee or some bullshit)

    You don't have to sign something to be bound by it. You can act in a way that is evidence of acceptance of conditions.

  10. Re:WTF IS WRONG WITH SLASHDOT?! on Computers, Aliens and Operating Systems? · · Score: 1
    The other thing is I set my date time display to local time so I can see when relative to now a post was made so i don't have to do mental math with time (aren't computers wonderful) and if you didn't know most of the world had finished 1 April by the time you guys in the us woke so as far as most of the rest of the world is concerned, your jokes are late.

  11. Re:What if Jesus was born today? on Civil Rights For Aliens? · · Score: 1
    Well of course. That's what happens to every child that is placed in the custody of the state isn't it. So much for that particular sector of humanity.

    Though it would make his eventual death and resurrection into heaven even the more remarkable.

  12. Re:ITS NOT A LAME QUESTION on Civil Rights For Aliens? · · Score: 1
    What if its just a bunch of drunk alien frat kids on a road trip in the car they stole from their dad or local equivalent. They may not be better than us intellectually then, would they?

    Well not all of us at least.

  13. Re:Speaking of which on Are Kids Turning Your Kids Into Killers? · · Score: 1

    So when my four year old pushes your four year old at kindergarten how long should she go to jail for?

  14. Re:Are Customer Accounts Assets? on Northpoint DSL Warns Customers of Shutdown · · Score: 1
    the press release on the NPC website says that AT&T acquired "... customer contracts.."

    I assume that means the customers folow the contract.

  15. Re:this is why violent revolution was invented on Patenting RPC Compression? · · Score: 1
    I find it interesting that all the posts and articles use the 'big corporate bastard' names when they rant about how these things are destroying western civilization as we know it etc.

    Believe it or not, all these decisions are made by people. Real flesh and blood people. People who go squish when someone accidentially hits them with a car, or bullet ... by accident.

    Why can't some of those american idiots who shoot down the receptionist because they lost some money day trading pick a prominant patent abuser from a list and do them instead.

    After all, no-one is innocent!

  16. Re:not to pick a nit ....but..... on TCP Weakness No False Alarm? · · Score: 1
    what is funny about this post. michael is just stating that the blurb is misleading. it makes the newsch look like the perp of the bad tcp thing.

    It doesn't read any other way

  17. Re:Justifying government on DDoS Detection Devices · · Score: 1
    So we should thank the script kiddies for contributing to world peace in a very real and meaningful way.??

    So the more ddos atttacks there are the more peaceful it will be. I suppose it works. The internet sure would be quiet.

  18. Re:Yippee on One Click Setback for Amazon · · Score: 1

    yes. you would like it if everything was free after you leave home and go in search of a life.

  19. Re:Such fantasies on Bell Labs Creates Plastic Superconductor · · Score: 1
    No, you're right. We shouldn't make predictions about these things unless we are sure we will be 100% correct. Otherwise we just disappoint people.

    And for sure one of them will be an american and try to sue us for mental anguish.

  20. Re:benefits? on Bell Labs Creates Plastic Superconductor · · Score: 1

    then i guess i better be even more careful puttin' the heatsink on soas i don't get a rude shock from the alectricy thatsa coursin through the place even faster than before.

  21. Re:benefits? on Bell Labs Creates Plastic Superconductor · · Score: 1

    the tops won't crack when i try to clamp the heatsink housing on to the socket. i'd pay a $ for that

  22. Re:What about potatos? on Magnetic Propulsion Pellet Gun Achieves 20km/s · · Score: 1

    Just in case youre serious, I think the escape velocity of all objects is the same. It doesn't depend on the charatereistics of the object. So according to the other posts, 7 miles/sec or 11 km/sec if you're a potato or a horse.

  23. Re:Both sides of the coin on Harlan Ellison on Copyright Infringement · · Score: 1
    You buy a copy of a book (creative works you have paid for). How do you get any further than that. And how does accessing the work in other ways that the artist doesn't agree with increase the profit to the artist.

    And what about the middlemen who aren't bloodsucking. Surely youre not suggesting that everyone in the chain except the producer and the consumer are bloodsucking middlemen.

  24. Re:How is it different from a...library? on Harlan Ellison on Copyright Infringement · · Score: 1

    So, you'll be sending us all a copy of the latest relaease of the CoManage software then. I can't wait. In the legal system where i live we have the thief in court before the judge, not the victim. So the judge is likely to be saying "And why do you think that the fact that a few other people were stealing the money means that you weren't stealing the money.?" We call that looting. What do you call it?

  25. Re:How is it different from a...library? on Harlan Ellison on Copyright Infringement · · Score: 1
    You'll kick yourself when I tell you, honestly you will.

    Libraries buy books, they don't steal them.

    So if 10,000 libraries buy a copy the author gets some money.

    If one person puts the book on the web and everyone copies it the author gets not very much at all.