It's true encryption hasn't caught on yet, but give people a good reason to learn, and they will. Here it is a carrot and a stick. Use encryption and you keep you internet access (regardless of whether you are doing anything illegal...mistakes happen, see this article). Don't use encryption and get cut off.
Evolve or die!
Re:One letter per day to your congressmen.
on
RIAA To Target CD-R
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· Score: 1
When the time comes to oppose legislation on this issue, my representatives will be aware in no uncertain terms that, if they vote to impose a tax, I will never vote for them again.
I have a policy of voting against encumbents anyway. Since very few encumbents are defeated at re-election time, they get an ego almost as big as M$'s. Make them fear for their jobs and I bet things like the DMCA would get repealed real fast.
For mozilla on linux, the flash plugin files go in the plugins directory where you installed mozilla. On my system, the full path is/usr/local/mozilla/plugins
do you have the slightest idea how much that overhead really is? (hint: 20% is blatantly wrong)
I should have typed 2%. My typo. This is user-mode space and includes the overhead introduced by having to go through the client. Kernel-mode is probably different.
How you know that without having used it? I have PPPoE and none problems.
I have used it at a client's site. My main problem (other than swbell's lousy service - which is a whole other issue) was I could not get it to work on a custom kernel. Admittedly, this was probably my fault, but at two other sites without pppoe (straight ethernet DSL), the same kernel works fine. Not being able to run the kernel I wanted created a lot of other problems. Problems I wouldn't have had had it not been for pppoe.
[no support for my os] don't you have that anyway?
True, but now any pppoe problems get blamed on my os too. I've already experienced that firsthand. At one client, swbell switched the routing tables, but not the actual lines (as I later learned). When I called to find out why I couldn't log in (which is an issue with pppoe), they refused to help me until I loaded a windows box and their software, which the previous admin had lost. I finally got someone else, and I pieced together the problem and solution (switch the lines if you're going to switch the routing tables). Of course, I guess this goes back to the really crappy service.
As to the more cpu cycles, yes the amount is small, but not zero. No big deal you say...well a single sheet of paper doesn't weigh much, but try carrying 3 cases around. It's just another unnecessary pin prick.
All the new swbell connections are now pppoe, but some of us got in before they switched to that. If they switch, as much as I hate timewarner, I just might switch to cable. You lose about 20% of your bandwith to pppoe overhead. It's also more cpu intensive and harder to deal with. On top of that, they don't support Linux, so if you have any problems, your SOL if you use it. (It is possible to use it with Linux though.) Support from them sucks for Windows anyway. So much so I stopped recommending them long ago even for people using Windows.
Let's see, lower bandwidth, more connection problems, no support for my OS, and more cpu cycles...Yeah, this is a great deal me!
Actually, the damage could occur even if you aren't making a copy. For instance, suppose you buy what you believe is a legitimate copy in a story that is actually a pirated copy. I have one CD that I suspect that's what actually happened. You certainly weren't actively involved in the pirating and didn't even know it was pirated. But your equipment is damaged anyway.
There are a whole bunch of lawyers that are going to get rich off this if the damage component hits the market!
The best way to stop this is to get out and rock the vote next election. Too bad most people vote party lines even though both parties screw the people pretty much equally. I guess that's why I'm an indepent. Now if just a few more people would get a clue...
...if it weren't for the fact Microsoft were hacked too, once again demonstrating that when it comes to security, Microsoft is completely inept.
As much as I really, really hate coming to M$'s defense, in this case I must. I don't think M$ is completely inept. More like 80%.
There has yet to be created a perfectly secure computer, especially one that is connected to the network, and I have serious doubts that there ever will be. This is made even worse by clueless managers. Every large company has some, and it only takes one to get you cracked. M$ has shown it has quite a few. Unfortunately, M$ is not alone.
I remember getting repremanded more than once for spending my time installing security patches. I also remember a time the office manager at a place I used to work at decided to effectively hang out a crackers welcome sign (against my advice...in writing). Within a week, we were rooted. The admins in charge of that server claimed it was a hardware problem. Took 3 months of repeatedly being broken into before they admitted they were broken into and took most of my advice on how to fix it (reinstall from known good media, not the most recent system backup!).
The big different in my mind is it is obvious that the yellow page ads are in fact ads. This should be obvious to anyone more than about 5 years old. For those it isn't obvious too, well, they're a lost cause anyway. Labeling won't help these people. Also, the ads in the yellow pages are sometimes more helpful than the one line listings. If nothing else, the ads often give the hours.
The pay for placement is a different story. This is deceptive. When someone does a search for something, the search engine is representing that it will try to return the most relevant results first. Pay for placement breaks this trust.
I agree that search engines have to support themselves, and that they perform a valuable service free to the users. However, there are two practices discuessed in the article, not one.
I personally have little problems with pay for inclusion. Yes, it will skew the results slightly, with those that pay virtually guaranteed to come up somewhere in the search. However, this doesn't mean they come up first. This only means they are in the database. But hey, the search engines do have to be self supporting, and this does allow for impartial results from what is in the database. With more income, the search engines can, in theory at least, have a bigger database. This directly benefits the users.
Pay for placement is other story. At the very least gives the false impression that the results are impartial, when in fact they are not. This is deceptive, especially if not very clearly labled. And even then some people will be fooled. Just think of all those AOLusers.
I just can't see how any law-abiding citizen would have a problem with this?
It has been said that if all the laws in this country were strictly enforced, we'd all be in jail. And let's face it. There are a lot of totally stupid laws on the books that should be repealed (think DMCA for one!), but are still there and still enforceable.
Try mounting a file on a loopback device in 2.4.2 and you'll learn real fast why you should upgrade! Aside from that, less than 2.4.4 has some file system problems, which could lead to filesystem corruption. 2.4.4 also has the patch for the iptables hole included. (There a patch for 2.4.3 that fixes this too.).
Haven't had time to figure out what the major changes are yet in 2.4.5.
I have been using Mozilla as my main browser since M18. It just keeps getting better and faster. If you haven't tried it recently, give it another go. Right now, I am adding this comment from the Mozilla 05-23-2001 nightly build. Mozilla 0.9.1 is about to come out.
Yes there are bugs, but no showstoppers. Plus, unlike IE (or Netscape), you can report bugs and get them fixed.
Try Mozilla. You might like it! Konqueror is also pretty good.
Capping punitive awards encourages such waste of the courts time by limiting the exposure to a counter-suit.
As has been suggested by others, an even more effective effective way to discourge such suits is loser pays winners court costs. Put that in place and the courts will suddenly have much more free time on their hands.
To run pptpd, you have to patch the kernel. A howto at here describes how to patch and recompile the 2.4 kernel. If you aren't interested in pptpd for linux, just ignore the patches but follow the rest of the directions.
It works on Mandrake. There is even a sample configuration file for the kernel with Reiserfs support. Be sure and check the CPU type though.
They obviously have a right to publish it. The question is, does the RIAA have a right to sue them, and on what grounds?
Alas, yes. In the US, anyone could sue anyone over anything. Doesn't mean the case has merit, or that you'll win. Just means you can sue.
Until awarding lawyer fees becomes common practice in the US, this abuse will continue. How many cases have started just to use discovery, then once the desired info is gained, the case is dropped?
You are not alone in you opinion that corporations wield way too much power. I have responded by trying to shift my business to non-big corporations where feasible. I've found I get better service, a product that's no worse (and in some cases, better), for about the same price (sometimes slightly higher, sometimes slightly lower - it averages out to about the same).
In other cases, I boycott. I haven't bought a CD since this whole Napster suit started. I haven't bought a DVD either or gone to see a movie since the DeCSS case started, and don't intend to. I enlighten others about the region encoding, and have convinced a few to at least hold off their purchases.
You want to change the corporations, hit'em where it hurts - the balance book.
...how about making something better than ddr and kill it on a technological standpoint, not in court,...
I would cheer any company that does that, but alas, the best technology doesn't always win. Marketing plays a BIG part. Just look at M$. Crappy OS, but great marketing, and look who owns the desktops (for now...).
As was pointed out in a recent/. article, the question can be very moot. Maybe the terms do allow that M$ owns your bits (I wouldn't be suprised if that is the aim), and maybe they don't. The big question is: If M$ decides to "steal" your stuff, can you afford to go after them legally?
For all but decent size corporations, or mult-millionaires, the answer will be no. Not until there is reform in American courts where the loser pays reasonable winners legal costs.
The easiest way to avoid this problem is to use decent encryption. Sure, they can steal the scrambled bits, but that's all they'll have.
Slashdot Mirror
It's true encryption hasn't caught on yet, but give people a good reason to learn, and they will. Here it is a carrot and a stick. Use encryption and you keep you internet access (regardless of whether you are doing anything illegal...mistakes happen, see this article). Don't use encryption and get cut off.
Evolve or die!
When the time comes to oppose legislation on this issue, my representatives will be aware in no uncertain terms that, if they vote to impose a tax, I will never vote for them again.
I have a policy of voting against encumbents anyway. Since very few encumbents are defeated at re-election time, they get an ego almost as big as M$'s. Make them fear for their jobs and I bet things like the DMCA would get repealed real fast.
So they can't see Gamespy.com, PlanetQuake or Slashdot at school, awww, too bad.
I've never visited the others, but slashdot can be seen just fine from Linux. I use both mozilla and konqueror.
For mozilla on linux, the flash plugin files go in the plugins directory where you installed mozilla. On my system, the full path is /usr/local/mozilla/plugins
do you have the slightest idea how much that overhead really is? (hint: 20% is blatantly wrong)
I should have typed 2%. My typo. This is user-mode space and includes the overhead introduced by having to go through the client. Kernel-mode is probably different.
How you know that without having used it? I have PPPoE and none problems.
I have used it at a client's site. My main problem (other than swbell's lousy service - which is a whole other issue) was I could not get it to work on a custom kernel. Admittedly, this was probably my fault, but at two other sites without pppoe (straight ethernet DSL), the same kernel works fine. Not being able to run the kernel I wanted created a lot of other problems. Problems I wouldn't have had had it not been for pppoe.
[no support for my os] don't you have that anyway?
True, but now any pppoe problems get blamed on my os too. I've already experienced that firsthand. At one client, swbell switched the routing tables, but not the actual lines (as I later learned). When I called to find out why I couldn't log in (which is an issue with pppoe), they refused to help me until I loaded a windows box and their software, which the previous admin had lost. I finally got someone else, and I pieced together the problem and solution (switch the lines if you're going to switch the routing tables). Of course, I guess this goes back to the really crappy service.
As to the more cpu cycles, yes the amount is small, but not zero. No big deal you say...well a single sheet of paper doesn't weigh much, but try carrying 3 cases around. It's just another unnecessary pin prick.
All the new swbell connections are now pppoe, but some of us got in before they switched to that. If they switch, as much as I hate timewarner, I just might switch to cable. You lose about 20% of your bandwith to pppoe overhead. It's also more cpu intensive and harder to deal with. On top of that, they don't support Linux, so if you have any problems, your SOL if you use it. (It is possible to use it with Linux though.) Support from them sucks for Windows anyway. So much so I stopped recommending them long ago even for people using Windows.
Let's see, lower bandwidth, more connection problems, no support for my OS, and more cpu cycles...Yeah, this is a great deal me!
Actually, the damage could occur even if you aren't making a copy. For instance, suppose you buy what you believe is a legitimate copy in a story that is actually a pirated copy. I have one CD that I suspect that's what actually happened. You certainly weren't actively involved in the pirating and didn't even know it was pirated. But your equipment is damaged anyway.
There are a whole bunch of lawyers that are going to get rich off this if the damage component hits the market!
The best way to stop this is to get out and rock the vote next election. Too bad most people vote party lines even though both parties screw the people pretty much equally. I guess that's why I'm an indepent. Now if just a few more people would get a clue...
As much as I really, really hate coming to M$'s defense, in this case I must. I don't think M$ is completely inept. More like 80%.
There has yet to be created a perfectly secure computer, especially one that is connected to the network, and I have serious doubts that there ever will be. This is made even worse by clueless managers. Every large company has some, and it only takes one to get you cracked. M$ has shown it has quite a few. Unfortunately, M$ is not alone.
I remember getting repremanded more than once for spending my time installing security patches. I also remember a time the office manager at a place I used to work at decided to effectively hang out a crackers welcome sign (against my advice...in writing). Within a week, we were rooted. The admins in charge of that server claimed it was a hardware problem. Took 3 months of repeatedly being broken into before they admitted they were broken into and took most of my advice on how to fix it (reinstall from known good media, not the most recent system backup!).
The big different in my mind is it is obvious that the yellow page ads are in fact ads. This should be obvious to anyone more than about 5 years old. For those it isn't obvious too, well, they're a lost cause anyway. Labeling won't help these people. Also, the ads in the yellow pages are sometimes more helpful than the one line listings. If nothing else, the ads often give the hours.
The pay for placement is a different story. This is deceptive. When someone does a search for something, the search engine is representing that it will try to return the most relevant results first. Pay for placement breaks this trust.
I agree that search engines have to support themselves, and that they perform a valuable service free to the users. However, there are two practices discuessed in the article, not one.
I personally have little problems with pay for inclusion. Yes, it will skew the results slightly, with those that pay virtually guaranteed to come up somewhere in the search. However, this doesn't mean they come up first. This only means they are in the database. But hey, the search engines do have to be self supporting, and this does allow for impartial results from what is in the database. With more income, the search engines can, in theory at least, have a bigger database. This directly benefits the users.
Pay for placement is other story. At the very least gives the false impression that the results are impartial, when in fact they are not. This is deceptive, especially if not very clearly labled. And even then some people will be fooled. Just think of all those AOLusers.
Actually, I've sucessfully used lilo 21.5 to boot reiserfs. I know it isn't supposed to work, but it did. Of course, I've since upgraded to 21.7.
I just can't see how any law-abiding citizen would have a problem with this?
It has been said that if all the laws in this country were strictly enforced, we'd all be in jail. And let's face it. There are a lot of totally stupid laws on the books that should be repealed (think DMCA for one!), but are still there and still enforceable.
I've had good luck with the automatic installation only when running the browser as root.
To get java working (in Linux at least) manually:
It all makes sense now why one of our most advanced nuclear submarines couldn't hear a noisy Japanese fishing boat right above them:
Captain: Navigator, take her up
Navigator:Aye, Aye Captain. Hey Captain, what does it mean when my screen turns all blue? *THUD*
It does involve the ftp protocol, but not the ftp servers specifically.
Try mounting a file on a loopback device in 2.4.2 and you'll learn real fast why you should upgrade! Aside from that, less than 2.4.4 has some file system problems, which could lead to filesystem corruption. 2.4.4 also has the patch for the iptables hole included. (There a patch for 2.4.3 that fixes this too.).
Haven't had time to figure out what the major changes are yet in 2.4.5.
I have been using Mozilla as my main browser since M18. It just keeps getting better and faster. If you haven't tried it recently, give it another go. Right now, I am adding this comment from the Mozilla 05-23-2001 nightly build. Mozilla 0.9.1 is about to come out.
Yes there are bugs, but no showstoppers. Plus, unlike IE (or Netscape), you can report bugs and get them fixed.
Try Mozilla. You might like it! Konqueror is also pretty good.
Capping punitive awards encourages such waste of the courts time by limiting the exposure to a counter-suit.
As has been suggested by others, an even more effective effective way to discourge such suits is loser pays winners court costs. Put that in place and the courts will suddenly have much more free time on their hands.
I wonder just how many cars have been repo'd from M$'s parking lot. That would make a good story!
To run pptpd, you have to patch the kernel. A howto at here describes how to patch and recompile the 2.4 kernel. If you aren't interested in pptpd for linux, just ignore the patches but follow the rest of the directions.
It works on Mandrake. There is even a sample configuration file for the kernel with Reiserfs support. Be sure and check the CPU type though.
They obviously have a right to publish it. The question is, does the RIAA have a right to sue them, and on what grounds?
Alas, yes. In the US, anyone could sue anyone over anything. Doesn't mean the case has merit, or that you'll win. Just means you can sue.
Until awarding lawyer fees becomes common practice in the US, this abuse will continue. How many cases have started just to use discovery, then once the desired info is gained, the case is dropped?
You are not alone in you opinion that corporations wield way too much power. I have responded by trying to shift my business to non-big corporations where feasible. I've found I get better service, a product that's no worse (and in some cases, better), for about the same price (sometimes slightly higher, sometimes slightly lower - it averages out to about the same).
In other cases, I boycott. I haven't bought a CD since this whole Napster suit started. I haven't bought a DVD either or gone to see a movie since the DeCSS case started, and don't intend to. I enlighten others about the region encoding, and have convinced a few to at least hold off their purchases.
You want to change the corporations, hit'em where it hurts - the balance book.
I would cheer any company that does that, but alas, the best technology doesn't always win. Marketing plays a BIG part. Just look at M$. Crappy OS, but great marketing, and look who owns the desktops (for now...).
As was pointed out in a recent /. article, the question can be very moot. Maybe the terms do allow that M$ owns your bits (I wouldn't be suprised if that is the aim), and maybe they don't. The big question is: If M$ decides to "steal" your stuff, can you afford to go after them legally?
For all but decent size corporations, or mult-millionaires, the answer will be no. Not until there is reform in American courts where the loser pays reasonable winners legal costs.
The easiest way to avoid this problem is to use decent encryption. Sure, they can steal the scrambled bits, but that's all they'll have.