Re:Danger of 'GPLv3 or later'
on
GPLv2 Vs. GPLv3
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· Score: 1
Uh, no, MS can not write a license and call it the "GNU General Public License version 4". I beleive "GNU" and "GPL" are copyrights and/or trademarks owned by the FSF.
And I think it will be a cold day in hell before MS is able to buy the FSF, even when RMS passes on.
Re:Can someone please explain to me...
on
GPLv2 Vs. GPLv3
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· Score: 1
Yes, What Tivo is doing wrong is selling you hardware, and then using restrictions in that hardware to prevent you from running whatever software you want on it (including changed versions of the software they provide on it), while at the same time, using software on it that is licensed to them in the spirit of freedom, and of specifically allowing users to make changes to it. In a sense, they are trying to only 'license' the hardware to you by only letting 'official' software run on it, which is absurd.
Just imagine how happy MS would be if all the OEM PC makers, as well as motherboard manufacturers, agreed to a scheme like that - only 'official' software could run on their machines., and the machine would use an encryption key to prevent anything else from running. That would be the end of running *BSD, Linux, BeOs, anything else other than MS, on any new hardware.
The GPL very clearly indicates that authors choosing to release softwre under it may choose to relicense it under future versions of the GPL. So any competent lawyer working for Tivo should have been able to recognize this when they first evaluated using GPL software, and they should have known about this possibility from the start.
Of course, that doesn't mean they arent going to complain and whinge about it to try to scare people away from GPL3
The goal of (Free SOftware) is NOT 'commercial adoption'.
I could give a damn wether corporations use Linux, including Tivo.
The goal is to not use non-free software, and for the software to do what *I* want.
Also note that even GPLv2 was claimed to be sufficient to prevent 'commercial adoption', and that was before there was any signifigant critical mass at all.
Tivo will find a way to adapt to GPLv3, or they will die. If the die, something more viable will take their place.
Yeah that would be great for people that actually do want to go to a specific site, say their kids schools website, or the employers, or maybe their online banking site. Maybe their own private site that isnt listed in search engines (and they dont want it there either).
Lets take the dials off phones while we are at it, and instead when you pick up the phone you get information that connects you to whoever you find. Oh, your party has an unlisted number? No way to call them.
The DNS is turned off right away. Then there is a grace period where the registrant can still renew, and reactivated. After the grace period is over it is deleted eg, 'unregistered'. After that nothing prevents someone else from registering the same name.
Really, how long do you think you should be able to keep 'your name' if you cant be bothered to pay the annual registration fee? Heck, you can even pay in advance for multiple years if remembering each year is annoying to you.
If you stop paying, you lose it. Kinda like your phone number. You stop paying, they turn off your phoneline, but its still 'your number' for some period of time. If you dont pay, eventualy, they disconnect you, and the number eventually returns to the available pool and can be reassigned to a new customer.
Not until one can access this "Internet TV" with standard off-the-shelf hardware, using *ANY* software, including software one writes oneself, to access it without closed encryption or DRM.
Eg, like VoIP already works. (and I dont count Skype) The protocols and formats are open and fully documented. One can use encryption, but no proprietary software is required. There is even an extensive server application that can do most of what anyone would want to do with VoIP that is completely Free Software (GPL).
If there is any "Internet TV" that comes even close, feel free to point it out. But I have seen none. Basically, if there is anything that works without requiring either an MS web browser, an MS "Operating System", or proprietary binary-only software, then it might come close to qualifying.
Hey, those lights actually serve a purpose, you know. For instance the link and traffic leds on a router are invaluable when troubleshooting. And the lights on most devices let you confirm they have power without having to pull out a voltmeter. If they annoy you and/or dont serve any purpose for you, get some black electrical tape and cover them up. But dont make manufacturers think they need to take them away from those of us that understand what they are for and make use of them.
Things like not trying to cross train tracks while a train is coming arent a navigation problem, its a driving problem. Any sort of 'smart car' would either need specialized sensors foc such things, or there would have to be direct telemetry to things such as train crossings.
Just a note, the GPS system itself doesnt have any maps. All GPS does is figure your positional coodinates (lat/long). It is private companies that produce devices which GPS receivers, and then also have displayable maps and road data, which they obtain privately. Governments have no responsiblity, authority, or means to directly update that data.
More importantly, is your contact information at google (or documents, or email messages, or anything else) locked into a proprietary secret format that is non-trivial to convert away from?
I think you'll see that the answer is 'no'. Compare to documents created and stored in one of MS-Word's many formats.
Who the f*** decided that sentences on the Internet shall no longer be formatted with two spaces after a period?!
Two-spaces-after-a-period is an old mechanical typerwriter thing that has long been obsoleted by modern word processors and modern print fonts and is entirely irrelevant in electronically represented text.
Current cablemodem technology is CAPABLE of around 45Mbit/s
The 'real world' rate of 384K or 3M or 5M is due to the cable company-set cap in the device, and is becuase thats all they want you to have for what you pay them. Of course, none of this has any bearing on what the cable head-ends upstream connection is, if its a T1 (1.5M), you arent gonna get 45M no matter what they do to the cap.
So if this tech is capable of 150Mbit/s, then its only about 3 times faster that current technology, not 25.
How about developers that chose to produce Free Software, do so becuase they want there to be more Free Software? Releasing something under the GPL specifically prevents some company from taking it closed and making money off it, becuase anyone can get it for "free", and if they modify it, they have to release their modifications as Free Software as well.
I think most programmers that write Free Software do so becuase the like to. And probably if they have time to write software at all, they are probably already gainfully employed (even possibly at a position in which it is their job to write, debug, or enhance Free SOftware)
The primary advantages that copper have over fiber are one, no power is required to terminate it. (Or rather, power is supplied by the CO, right over the copper itself) Very handy in emergencies, and yes, you can have battery backups and UPS's, but those still only run so long. And thats not even considering the remote terminals they use in the field to mux the lines that need their own power. Two, installed base -you dont have to *buy* copper to get a copper phone line, its already there, pretty much everywhere. (Oh and btw most 'fiber' these days is plastic, rather than glass, so probably oil rather than sand)
Copper's big disadvantages are that the installed base is tightly in the control of the monopoly incumbents (and this applies to cable as well as telco), and the regulatory quagmire involved in getting right-of-way to install anything new.
The biggest thing that could happen to boost telecommunications benefits to the masses in the US is if the ILEC's were seperated from their installed copper plant. "Structural Seperation", where two new companies would be formed, one heavily regulated one that would own and operate the copper plant, and be required to provide eqaul access to all, and the other that would operate and run the switched services (and maybe get out from under a little regulation, as a sweetener), and the two be required to operate at arms length.
Another good thing would be an anti-bundling law for high-speed net access for incumbent telecom companies - if they offer broadband, they must advertise a broadband-only price which does not require paying for a phone line or cable TV in order to get. "19.95 for DSL" sounds good until you realize that you have to pay $50 on top of that for a non-optional phone line, *and* you have to sign a year or longer contract with a hefty termination charge, just to prevent you from switching should someone else ever manage to offfer another option that doesnt suck.
I'm not the one stuck with AT&T, one of the parent posters was. And yes, my points only apply to landline. There is fair competition for mobile service, and 'long distance' calling as a market enjoys very healthy competition, even to the point where it is often 'free' when you pay for something else. Just imagine if basic wired landline service had competition that healthy - "buy our high speed net service, get a phone line free'. Although I suppose if you aregue that the true price of basic DSL from AT*T is around $80/mo, then I guess you could call it that. But $80 for basic DSL (Im talking the slow stuff they advertise at 19.99, but which you have to also pay over $50/mo for a phone line in order to get) just isnt palatable. They should be require to advertise the actual amount you have to pay to get that, not just the amount they add on to the other required service that you dont necesarrilly want.
Wow that would be a fantastic option. Except for the fact that if AT&T(SBC) is your phone company, AT&T has exclusive control over the copper to your house, and is going to charge whoever else you might want to get service from at least as much if not more to use that copper than AT&T would bill you for phone service, leaving that competitor the choice of either losing money to provide you service, or charging you more than AT&T would. Oh, and AT&T will also drag their feet provisioning the interconnection for them, drag their feet in allowing your number to port over, drag their feet in responding to problems with the line, and in general do everything they can to make getting service from anyone else as difficult as possible. This is of course assuming that the competitors are still able to even stay in business after years of these antics from AT&T(SBC). Oh, and if you do decide to go back to AT&T after AT&T makes it difficult to impossible to use their competitor, be prepared to sign a year (or longer) contract, that includes a hefty termination fee should you ever want to decide to not be part of the monopoly again.
Uhm, yer an idiot. He *HAD* paid his bill, and the phone company's bank didnt report it properly to them. I even suspect that he was using an electronic service, if their bank had to notify them, becuase if he had mailed a check the telco would have gotten it first before the bank, and not had to wait for the bank to tell them.
On a tengential note, the only type of bill pay service I would or will ever use is the kine where *I* tell me bank who to pay, when, and how much. The ones where you happily give your account # to the creditor let them take how much they want, when they want. It takes away your option to not pay if they dont provide the service they want you to pay for.
Actually, it can. Look at Microsoft. When you get over 95% of the market and 'compatibility' is a concern, you can, without any special govt protection, pretty much prevent market entry by new competitors. And if by some astounding change someone does manage to get somewhere, you use your war chest to just buy them out.
Its taken an OS given away for *FREE*, programmed for *FREE* by volunteers, with a license that prohibits it from being taken proprietary, in order to even begin to put a chink in MS armor. That shows just how tight their monopoly control is.
Exactly - they didnt go far enough. All they did was create new smaller geographic monopolies. AT&T didnt have the entire market anymore, but any individual phone customer still had no choice of phone company, and each of the RBOCs still had exclusive control over their respective copper plants. And now, the companies are even merging back together. If you've seen Terminator 2, you saw the terminator re-assemble after being frozen and blasted apart. Just like the T2, the pieces of Ma Bell are slowly coming back together.
Yes, and access to and use of those copper pairs shouldnt be in the hands of a coporate monopoly (I'm talking SBC here, that has taken over the AT&T name).
The copper plant should be regulated, and equal access for all. It should be owned by the people, not a money-grubbing corp, especially considering that it was the money paid to the original AT&T monopoly by the captive customers for decade that financed its existence (and then later to the mini geographic monopolies that paid for its upkeep)
"Structural Seperation" would be a good first step. Google it.
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Uh, no, MS can not write a license and call it the "GNU General Public License version 4". I beleive "GNU" and "GPL" are copyrights and/or trademarks owned by the FSF.
And I think it will be a cold day in hell before MS is able to buy the FSF, even when RMS passes on.
Yes, What Tivo is doing wrong is selling you hardware, and then using restrictions in that hardware to prevent you from running whatever software you want on it (including changed versions of the software they provide on it), while at the same time, using software on it that is licensed to them in the spirit of freedom, and of specifically allowing users to make changes to it. In a sense, they are trying to only 'license' the hardware to you by only letting 'official' software run on it, which is absurd.
Just imagine how happy MS would be if all the OEM PC makers, as well as motherboard manufacturers, agreed to a scheme like that - only 'official' software could run on their machines., and the machine would use an encryption key to prevent anything else from running. That would be the end of running *BSD, Linux, BeOs, anything else other than MS, on any new hardware.
The GPL very clearly indicates that authors choosing to release softwre under it may choose to relicense it under future versions of the GPL. So any competent lawyer working for Tivo should have been able to recognize this when they first evaluated using GPL software, and they should have known about this possibility from the start.
Of course, that doesn't mean they arent going to complain and whinge about it to try to scare people away from GPL3
The goal of (Free SOftware) is NOT 'commercial adoption'.
I could give a damn wether corporations use Linux, including Tivo.
The goal is to not use non-free software, and for the software to do what *I* want.
Also note that even GPLv2 was claimed to be sufficient to prevent 'commercial adoption',
and that was before there was any signifigant critical mass at all.
Tivo will find a way to adapt to GPLv3, or they will die. If the die, something more viable will take their place.
Yeah that would be great for people that actually do want to go to a specific site, say their kids schools website, or the employers, or maybe their online banking site. Maybe their own private site that isnt listed in search engines (and they dont want it there either).
Lets take the dials off phones while we are at it, and instead when you pick up the phone you get information that connects you to whoever you find. Oh, your party has an unlisted number? No way to call them.
The DNS is turned off right away. Then there is a grace period where the registrant can still renew, and reactivated. After the grace period is over it is deleted eg, 'unregistered'. After that nothing prevents someone else from registering the same name.
Really, how long do you think you should be able to keep 'your name' if you cant be bothered to pay the annual registration fee? Heck, you can even pay in advance for multiple years if remembering each year is annoying to you.
If you stop paying, you lose it. Kinda like your phone number. You stop paying, they turn off your phoneline, but its still 'your number' for some period of time. If you dont pay, eventualy, they disconnect you, and the number eventually returns to the available pool and can be reassigned to a new customer.
Not until one can access this "Internet TV" with standard off-the-shelf hardware, using *ANY* software, including software one writes oneself, to access it without closed encryption or DRM.
Eg, like VoIP already works. (and I dont count Skype) The protocols and formats are open and fully documented. One can use encryption, but no proprietary software is required. There is even an extensive server application that can do most of what anyone would want to do with VoIP that is completely Free Software (GPL).
If there is any "Internet TV" that comes even close, feel free to point it out. But I have seen none. Basically, if there is anything that works without requiring either an MS web browser, an MS "Operating System", or proprietary binary-only software, then it might come close to qualifying.
Hey, those lights actually serve a purpose, you know. For instance the link and traffic leds on a router are invaluable when troubleshooting. And the lights on most devices let you confirm they have power without having to pull out a voltmeter. If they annoy you and/or dont serve any purpose for you, get some black electrical tape and cover them up. But dont make manufacturers think they need to take them away from those of us that understand what they are for and make use of them.
GPS ("satnav") is a navigation system
Things like not trying to cross train tracks while a train is coming arent a navigation problem, its a driving problem. Any sort of 'smart car' would either need specialized sensors foc such things, or there would have to be direct telemetry to things such as train crossings.
Just a note, the GPS system itself doesnt have any maps. All GPS does is figure your positional coodinates (lat/long). It is private companies that produce devices which GPS receivers, and then also have displayable maps and road data, which they obtain privately. Governments have no responsiblity, authority, or means to directly update that data.
More importantly, is your contact information at google (or documents, or email messages, or anything else) locked into a proprietary secret format that is non-trivial to convert away from?
I think you'll see that the answer is 'no'. Compare to documents created and stored in one of MS-Word's many formats.
Who the f*** decided that sentences on the Internet shall no longer be formatted with two spaces after a period?!
Two-spaces-after-a-period is an old mechanical typerwriter thing that has long been obsoleted by modern word processors and modern print fonts and is entirely irrelevant in electronically represented text.
In the future, if you have important data, do your OWN backups?
Pay for competent hosting at a local ISP, instead of some cut-rate incompetent boobs running *WINDOWS* as a server?
Just a couple ideas.
Current cablemodem technology is CAPABLE of around 45Mbit/s
The 'real world' rate of 384K or 3M or 5M is due to the cable company-set cap in the device, and is becuase thats all they want you to have for what you pay them. Of course, none of this has any bearing on what the cable head-ends upstream connection is, if its a T1 (1.5M), you arent gonna get 45M no matter what they do to the cap.
So if this tech is capable of 150Mbit/s, then its only about 3 times faster that current technology, not 25.
How about developers that chose to produce Free Software, do so becuase they want there to be more Free Software? Releasing something under the GPL specifically prevents some company from taking it closed and making money off it, becuase anyone can get it for "free", and if they modify it, they have to release their modifications as Free Software as well.
I think most programmers that write Free Software do so becuase the like to. And probably if they have time to write software at all, they are probably already gainfully employed (even possibly at a position in which it is their job to write, debug, or enhance Free SOftware)
the latest exploite for Internet Exploder will let the phishers make it *look* like you are at a .bank site but you will really be at their site.
The best idea for incresing online banking security is to ban the use of IE on such sites.
Your comments are mostly on point.
The primary advantages that copper have over fiber are one, no power is required to terminate it. (Or rather, power is supplied by the CO, right over the copper itself) Very handy in emergencies, and yes, you can have battery backups and UPS's, but those still only run so long. And thats not even considering the remote terminals they use in the field to mux the lines that need their own power. Two, installed base -you dont have to *buy* copper to get a copper phone line, its already there, pretty much everywhere. (Oh and btw most 'fiber' these days is plastic, rather than glass, so probably oil rather than sand)
Copper's big disadvantages are that the installed base is tightly in the control of the monopoly incumbents (and this applies to cable as well as telco), and the regulatory quagmire involved in getting right-of-way to install anything new.
The biggest thing that could happen to boost telecommunications benefits to the masses in the US is if the ILEC's were seperated from their installed copper plant. "Structural Seperation", where two new companies would be formed, one heavily regulated one that would own and operate the copper plant, and be required to provide eqaul access to all, and the other that would operate and run the switched services (and maybe get out from under a little regulation, as a sweetener), and the two be required to operate at arms length.
Another good thing would be an anti-bundling law for high-speed net access for incumbent telecom companies - if they offer broadband, they must advertise a broadband-only price which does not require paying for a phone line or cable TV in order to get. "19.95 for DSL" sounds good until you realize that you have to pay $50 on top of that for a non-optional phone line, *and* you have to sign a year or longer contract with a hefty termination charge, just to prevent you from switching should someone else ever manage to offfer another option that doesnt suck.
I'm not the one stuck with AT&T, one of the parent posters was. And yes, my points only apply to landline. There is fair competition for mobile service, and 'long distance' calling as a market enjoys very healthy competition, even to the point where it is often 'free' when you pay for something else. Just imagine if basic wired landline service had competition that healthy - "buy our high speed net service, get a phone line free'. Although I suppose if you aregue that the true price of basic DSL from AT*T is around $80/mo, then I guess you could call it that. But $80 for basic DSL (Im talking the slow stuff they advertise at 19.99, but which you have to also pay over $50/mo for a phone line in order to get) just isnt palatable. They should be require to advertise the actual amount you have to pay to get that, not just the amount they add on to the other required service that you dont necesarrilly want.
Oh I was just pointing out that this wasnt some 'new phenomenon', and that this was an issue once already.
Wow that would be a fantastic option. Except for the fact that if AT&T(SBC) is your phone company, AT&T has exclusive control over the copper to your house, and is going to charge whoever else you might want to get service from at least as much if not more to use that copper than AT&T would bill you for phone service, leaving that competitor the choice of either losing money to provide you service, or charging you more than AT&T would. Oh, and AT&T will also drag their feet provisioning the interconnection for them, drag their feet in allowing your number to port over, drag their feet in responding to problems with the line, and in general do everything they can to make getting service from anyone else as difficult as possible. This is of course assuming that the competitors are still able to even stay in business after years of these antics from AT&T(SBC). Oh, and if you do decide to go back to AT&T after AT&T makes it difficult to impossible to use their competitor, be prepared to sign a year (or longer) contract, that includes a hefty termination fee should you ever want to decide to not be part of the monopoly again.
Uhm, yer an idiot. He *HAD* paid his bill, and the phone company's bank didnt report it properly to them. I even suspect that he was using an electronic service, if their bank had to notify them, becuase if he had mailed a check the telco would have gotten it first before the bank, and not had to wait for the bank to tell them.
On a tengential note, the only type of bill pay service I would or will ever use is the kine where *I* tell me bank who to pay, when, and how much. The ones where you happily give your account # to the creditor let them take how much they want, when they want. It takes away your option to not pay if they dont provide the service they want you to pay for.
Actually, it can. Look at Microsoft. When you get over 95% of the market and 'compatibility' is a concern, you can, without any special govt protection, pretty much prevent market entry by new competitors. And if by some astounding change someone does manage to get somewhere, you use your war chest to just buy them out.
Its taken an OS given away for *FREE*, programmed for *FREE* by volunteers, with a license that prohibits it from being taken proprietary, in order to even begin to put a chink in MS armor. That shows just how tight their monopoly control is.
Exactly - they didnt go far enough. All they did was create new smaller geographic monopolies. AT&T didnt have the entire market anymore, but any individual phone customer still had no choice of phone company, and each of the RBOCs still had exclusive control over their respective copper plants. And now, the companies are even merging back together. If you've seen Terminator 2, you saw the terminator re-assemble after being frozen and blasted apart. Just like the T2, the pieces of Ma Bell are slowly coming back together.
Before the AT&T and SBC merged, I had far more respect for (the modern, but pre-merger) AT&T than I did for SBC.
Yes, and access to and use of those copper pairs shouldnt be in the hands of a coporate monopoly (I'm talking SBC here, that has taken over the AT&T name).
The copper plant should be regulated, and equal access for all. It should be owned by the people, not a money-grubbing corp, especially considering that it was the money paid to the original AT&T monopoly by the captive customers for decade that financed its existence (and then later to the mini geographic monopolies that paid for its upkeep)
"Structural Seperation" would be a good first step. Google it.