As I (IANAL) understand the ISP provision of the DMCA, the accuser makes the allegation under the penalty of perjury. The defendant may also respond (under penalty of perjury) that she is not violating the DMCA. Thus, the author's boyfriend should be able to take the MPAA to court, though only for perjury. However, if the public can bring enough of these suits to bear against the MPAA, it might be able to make the MPAA review this strategy. There might also be grounds for "Class Action" status, but I'm way out of my understanding.
I've thought that this might be an appropriate response to force life-saving drugs to market (AIDS, etc) faster than waiting for patents to expire. The same could be said for Copyright:
USGov: I'm sorry Mr. Eisner, but Mickey Mouse is too important to the culture of the USA for a single corporation to control; you're work is now public domain (for US citizens only [ed: this leads to its own problems vis-a-vis a new class of quasi-protected works]), here's x dollars.
On the surface, we (the people) get (free) access to works protected either by patents or by copyright. However, the implication of doing this is to equate a principle of Property (in the Tangible sense) Law to (so called) Patents, Trademarks and Copyright ("Intellectual Property" in the vernacular of the law). The danger, then, would be that this treatment of protected ideas the same as Property gives credence to content holders' arguments that "piracy" (however defined) is the same as stealing property thereby perpetuating the myth of "Intellectual Property".
So the real test (read: battle) will be if they help or hurt the DotGnu project. If the Open Source Community can provide Passport Services without being tied to Microsoft, then it will have struck a very tough blow to Redmond.
I live in Chicago where it is illegal to possess Spray Paint. In fact, the "tagger" hired by IBM for the "Peace, Love and Linux" campaign is being charged with "Possession of Spray Paint" in addition to the vandalism charges. I wonder if the possession law can pass the Constitutional Muster.
Very good point about which/how many Copyrights apply. I think there was a recent article about this very issue biting the RIAA's plans at on-line music distribution. The Songwritters want to be compensated.
The RIAA plan does not account for works already in (2). Further, to paraphrase: "In the end, all works are Public Domain" - that is, Content can not remain in (1) forever. Thus, any proposal regarding "Opting In" would need to account for this.
The problem is that this assumes that all content is copyrighted in the first place and that the copyright lasts to perpetuity. There should be no need to get permission to distribute works in the Public Domain, as no one "owns" the work.
The RIAA's behavior seems to indicate that they believe that Copyright lasts forever. This cannot be the case under the current Constitution.
If you value freedom (as in liberty) please do not purchase the DVD. When you buy a DVD, you buy into a system that:
1. Uses Region Coding to deny consumers their rights.
2. Uses Copyright and "Trade Secret" laws and the DMCA to invade 15 year old Norwegian's privacy and deny American Journalists their right to publish.
3. Limits the Consumer's Fair Use Rights by not allowing the Consumer the ability to digitally extract clips of the film.
4. Limits the Consumer to access the content only on "approved" operating systems which generally do not include Free Software OSes.
5. Provides technologies that are ignorant of content already in the Public Domain and ignorant of issues involving content that will fall into the Public Domain.
Please support the EFF. Please refrain from buying or using DVD technology.
I thought works produced by Government Agencies were not permitted to have a copyright. Thus, any work that the NSA does on Linux falls into the Public Domain. Can work in the Public Domain co-exist with code under the GPL? Or does that not apply in this case?
I'm also wondering about the legal status (under Copyright) of advancements made by NASA for Linux.
I became quite worried when he started mentioning Macrovision and endorsing some kind of Digital Rights Management. Devices cannot determine intent, certainly in no legal sense.
As I mention in a separate post, we don't need more exceptions to current Copyright Law, we need new Copyright Law (stike the old one from the record) and return to the idea of "...promoting science... and the useful arts". In my view, anything less is failure.
This is a very small step. What he seems to propose are more "exemptions" under current Copyright Law. While I would welcome these changes rather than live under the current situation, they are not enough.
Copyright Law needs to be completely overhauled; the law's concepts were formed at a time when the Printing Press was a huge capital investment. Today's "Printing Presses" (e.g. the Web) are common place. Current Copyright Law cannot deal with this notion of creating (copying) value for virtually nothing.
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
Hunter's Corollary: All corporations are, by default, sufficiently large groups of people.
IMO, the problem has never been getting smart people to deliver good code. The real problem is getting the "less than gifted" to produce good (or adequate) code.
It is a rare organization that employs only guru-level employees. What about the remaining organizations? Are they doomed to failure?
To this, I point to Richard Gabriel's well-written essay "Worse is Better" (available at: this location).
One point about this whole thing that I haven't seen mentioned:
The MPAA/RIAA and other "big media" "content owners" are operating under the assumption that their content is their's into perpetuity. This is wrong, per the Constitution which only grants "limited time" ownership. By behaving in a manner which assumes that content can never fall into the public domain, perhaps the EFF can seek to overturn all Copyright Extentions back to the original 14 + 14 year one.
None of these players takes into account "content protection" expiration, and as such should be forced to include such features.
*Pu-lease*. It's attitudes like this that I find sad. Are you telling me that you'd rather re-invent string manipulation functions than use the standard ones?
As far as "Games programming is one of the last bastions of 'pure' code", there's plenty of 'pure' code going on in academia - witness the rise of Beowulf clusters. There are places in industry which focus heavily on code optimization - Simulated Anealing at Intel, etc.
I take umbrage with 'pure' code. There is more to a program than code - design and maintenance are important parts to the equation. In the latter, I would argue that game programmers are fairly lazy. Those soul-destroying accountancy programs (generally) are more maintainable than a game. Games (especially closed source ones) are not (or rarely so) designed to last. Such is the nature of the industry.
My perception (admittedly based on little information) is that game programmers tend to be arrogant pricks who tend to subscribe to two theories:
1. If I didn't write it, I won't link to it. This goes directly to your comment about other people's libraries.
2. They do not seem as willing to learn from lessons from other "programming industries".
Re:The only way this could be done. . .
on
Nazis on Napster
·
· Score: 4
What about Wagner? His music was widely used under Hitler. I recently heard a story on NPR about an Isreali conductor who recently played a single piece (in a larger concert) by Wagner. The Public Address system advised the audience, and allowed time for people to leave.
The problem with the Constituitional Convention is that the Framers did not foresee the rise of National Political Parties. Basically, Republicrats and Democans control the Federal and State Legislatures. Do you think that either party would allow a Call for a Constitutional Convention to pass a plurality/majority/super-majority of State Legislatures?
I'll go on a limb and say that the next Amendment won't pass for another 200 years.
While a good idea to have a physical record of a vote, it should not be a receipt given back to the voter. This would defeat the whole notion of "secret ballot".
I believe _Applied Cryptography_ has a section dedicated to election security. Makes me inclined to review it tonight.
Slashdot Mirror
As I (IANAL) understand the ISP provision of the DMCA, the accuser makes the allegation under the penalty of perjury. The defendant may also respond (under penalty of perjury) that she is not violating the DMCA. Thus, the author's boyfriend should be able to take the MPAA to court, though only for perjury. However, if the public can bring enough of these suits to bear against the MPAA, it might be able to make the MPAA review this strategy. There might also be grounds for "Class Action" status, but I'm way out of my understanding.
Regards,
Slak
I've thought that this might be an appropriate response to force life-saving drugs to market (AIDS, etc) faster than waiting for patents to expire. The same could be said for Copyright:
USGov: I'm sorry Mr. Eisner, but Mickey Mouse is too important to the culture of the USA for a single corporation to control; you're work is now public domain (for US citizens only [ed: this leads to its own problems vis-a-vis a new class of quasi-protected works]), here's x dollars.
On the surface, we (the people) get (free) access to works protected either by patents or by copyright. However, the implication of doing this is to equate a principle of Property (in the Tangible sense) Law to (so called) Patents, Trademarks and Copyright ("Intellectual Property" in the vernacular of the law). The danger, then, would be that this treatment of protected ideas the same as Property gives credence to content holders' arguments that "piracy" (however defined) is the same as stealing property thereby perpetuating the myth of "Intellectual Property".
Regards,
Slak
Use OpenBSD.
So the real test (read: battle) will be if they help or hurt the DotGnu project. If the Open Source Community can provide Passport Services without being tied to Microsoft, then it will have struck a very tough blow to Redmond.
Won't somebody think of the children!
I live in Chicago where it is illegal to possess Spray Paint. In fact, the "tagger" hired by IBM for the "Peace, Love and Linux" campaign is being charged with "Possession of Spray Paint" in addition to the vandalism charges. I wonder if the possession law can pass the Constitutional Muster.
Cheers,
Slak
I was going to cite the Shuttle as well. Here is a great article about it.
Very good point about which/how many Copyrights apply. I think there was a recent article about this very issue biting the RIAA's plans at on-line music distribution. The Songwritters want to be compensated.
Content can fall into one of two categories:
1. Copyright
2. Public Domain
The RIAA plan does not account for works already in (2). Further, to paraphrase: "In the end, all works are Public Domain" - that is, Content can not remain in (1) forever. Thus, any proposal regarding "Opting In" would need to account for this.
The problem is that this assumes that all content is copyrighted in the first place and that the copyright lasts to perpetuity. There should be no need to get permission to distribute works in the Public Domain, as no one "owns" the work.
The RIAA's behavior seems to indicate that they believe that Copyright lasts forever. This cannot be the case under the current Constitution.
If you value freedom (as in liberty) please do not purchase the DVD. When you buy a DVD, you buy into a system that:
1. Uses Region Coding to deny consumers their rights.
2. Uses Copyright and "Trade Secret" laws and the DMCA to invade 15 year old Norwegian's privacy and deny American Journalists their right to publish.
3. Limits the Consumer's Fair Use Rights by not allowing the Consumer the ability to digitally extract clips of the film.
4. Limits the Consumer to access the content only on "approved" operating systems which generally do not include Free Software OSes.
5. Provides technologies that are ignorant of content already in the Public Domain and ignorant of issues involving content that will fall into the Public Domain.
Please support the EFF. Please refrain from buying or using DVD technology.
I thought works produced by Government Agencies were not permitted to have a copyright. Thus, any work that the NSA does on Linux falls into the Public Domain. Can work in the Public Domain co-exist with code under the GPL? Or does that not apply in this case?
I'm also wondering about the legal status (under Copyright) of advancements made by NASA for Linux.
Amen, Brother!
... and the useful arts". In my view, anything less is failure.
I became quite worried when he started mentioning Macrovision and endorsing some kind of Digital Rights Management. Devices cannot determine intent, certainly in no legal sense.
As I mention in a separate post, we don't need more exceptions to current Copyright Law, we need new Copyright Law (stike the old one from the record) and return to the idea of "...promoting science
This is a very small step. What he seems to propose are more "exemptions" under current Copyright Law. While I would welcome these changes rather than live under the current situation, they are not enough.
Copyright Law needs to be completely overhauled; the law's concepts were formed at a time when the Printing Press was a huge capital investment. Today's "Printing Presses" (e.g. the Web) are common place. Current Copyright Law cannot deal with this notion of creating (copying) value for virtually nothing.
Consider the article at LWN - here.
In as much (or little) as his proposed changes do, they endorse the current Copyright Code - staked out by IP Lawyers for IP Lawyers.
I repeat: we do not need new exceptions to current Copyright Law, we need new Copyright Law.
Cheers,
Slak
Disclaimer: I work for uBid.com (shameless plug), a B2C auction site. I'm curious what auction types you think need client side validation.
Does this mean that the DMCA would prevent any attempt at a Wolbachia Genome Project?
I can only point you to:
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
Hunter's Corollary: All corporations are, by default, sufficiently large groups of people.
IMO, the problem has never been getting smart people to deliver good code. The real problem is getting the "less than gifted" to produce good (or adequate) code.
It is a rare organization that employs only guru-level employees. What about the remaining organizations? Are they doomed to failure?
To this, I point to Richard Gabriel's well-written essay "Worse is Better" (available at: this location).
Cheers,
Slak
One point about this whole thing that I haven't seen mentioned:
The MPAA/RIAA and other "big media" "content owners" are operating under the assumption that their content is their's into perpetuity. This is wrong, per the Constitution which only grants "limited time" ownership. By behaving in a manner which assumes that content can never fall into the public domain, perhaps the EFF can seek to overturn all Copyright Extentions back to the original 14 + 14 year one.
None of these players takes into account "content protection" expiration, and as such should be forced to include such features.
I don't like using other people's libraries.
*Pu-lease*. It's attitudes like this that I find sad. Are you telling me that you'd rather re-invent string manipulation functions than use the standard ones?
As far as "Games programming is one of the last bastions of 'pure' code", there's plenty of 'pure' code going on in academia - witness the rise of Beowulf clusters. There are places in industry which focus heavily on code optimization - Simulated Anealing at Intel, etc.
I take umbrage with 'pure' code. There is more to a program than code - design and maintenance are important parts to the equation. In the latter, I would argue that game programmers are fairly lazy. Those soul-destroying accountancy programs (generally) are more maintainable than a game. Games (especially closed source ones) are not (or rarely so) designed to last. Such is the nature of the industry.
My perception (admittedly based on little information) is that game programmers tend to be arrogant pricks who tend to subscribe to two theories:
1. If I didn't write it, I won't link to it. This goes directly to your comment about other people's libraries.
2. They do not seem as willing to learn from lessons from other "programming industries".
What about Wagner? His music was widely used under Hitler. I recently heard a story on NPR about an Isreali conductor who recently played a single piece (in a larger concert) by Wagner. The Public Address system advised the audience, and allowed time for people to leave.
Should Wagner be banned from Napster?
The problem with the Constituitional Convention is that the Framers did not foresee the rise of National Political Parties. Basically, Republicrats and Democans control the Federal and State Legislatures. Do you think that either party would allow a Call for a Constitutional Convention to pass a plurality/majority/super-majority of State Legislatures?
I'll go on a limb and say that the next Amendment won't pass for another 200 years.
Cheers,
Slak
Other benefits to waiting for the DVD include:
1. Indirect support of the RIAA and MPAA in suits against Linux advocates.
2. Propagation of the (illegal) "Region Coding" scheme.
Cheers,
Slak
Can you make this a butterfly ballot for the polls?
It would be more than the MSDN subscription because you get source with Linux. Anyone know what the going license on Windows Source Code is?
While a good idea to have a physical record of a vote, it should not be a receipt given back to the voter. This would defeat the whole notion of "secret ballot".
I believe _Applied Cryptography_ has a section dedicated to election security. Makes me inclined to review it tonight.
Cheers,
Slak