"in return for giving you permission to use this software, you agree to these terms"
Once you've legally acquired the software, you can entirely ignore the GPL and continue using it. However, if you give a copy to someone else, you have to respect the GPL in order to do so. And that means, either pass it on unmodified, or with all modifications covered by the GPL with source available.
the same laws that uphold their proprietary licenses uphold my GPL and BSD licenses. If it is wrong for people to violate those licenses (and I think it is), then it is wrong to break a EULA from Microsquish or whomever.
Now there I disagree with you. The GPL is an additional rights grant, over on top of the rights that copyright allows. Commercial licences are typically additional restrictions placed on the recipient, and I do not believe that those restricitons are justifiable or legally binding.
Re:Good.. we need Ideas, not just complaints
on
"Squishy" DRM?
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· Score: 1
I thought the purpose of having computers and this internet was to share information,
That may be true, but the whole point of the printing press was to mass-produce information for the public. That didn't stop the church from burning people at the stake for publishing English bibles up to two hundred years later.
It isn't reasonable to talk about what the world would be like if the US were suddenly not there - as the saying goes, if it didn't exist, you'd have to invent it. If there were no US, then there would be another country with similar influence and power; there wouldn't just be a big US-shaped hole. Also, don't underestimate how much of the US's power and influence is due to the rest of the world trading with you, enabling the amassing of wealth that you seem to be rather good at. And if your borders were closed, you wouldn't have gotten access to all those German scientists that created the space programme. They'd've been working on the Nazi space programme instead. =:-O
Well spotted. That's the price of being the world's only superpower. We had our turn when we had the world's greatest empire, everyone blamed us for everything (not that they weren't sometimes right, of course).
Copy-protection systems usually come with proprietary software that is hidden or cannot be altered--something that no self-respecting open-source hacker would integrate into a program.
One of the few places in the mainstream media where "hacker" is used away of the context of computer criminals.
Sorry if it came over badly, but I didn't call you ignorant. I said that you are hopelessly optimistic. I don't believe that DRM will ever be a positive influence.
Not going to happen. The only DRM system that is going to get incorporated into home electronics will be the one that Sony likes. Sorry I misunderstood you - I mistook hopeless optimism for ignorance.
So you're prepared to say "tough titties" to the majority of the population, in order to remove the threat to the purses of Big Media. Just so long as we know where you stand.
I think everyone could benefit from an unbreakable DRM system,
And how would this system distinguish legal copying from illegal copying? Even a notion of a general idea that might work would be nice. I want to be able to make unlimited personal-use copies - for use in a car cd player, MP3 player, or cassette walkman; I want to be able to sell either the original, or a copy if I have lost or damaged the original; I want to be able to use it on any of the PCs that I own; I want to do all this without having to dial up to an authentication server. Anything that gets in the way of any of these rights that are guaranteed by copyright law is unacceptable. Oh, and I want to be able to go abroad and take all my DRM stuff with me, and use it on local equipment. Also a right guaranteed by international treaty.
Read the patent, it talks about "vetted bailee" and other implementation details.
It looks to me like the patent is pretty specific, and specifies that the goods change hands but stay on the market, so I buy something from you, and then increase the price but leave it on sale "thereby to allow the purchaser to speculate on the price of collectibles in an electronic market for used goods while assuring the safe and trusted physical possession of a good with a vetted bailee". Sounds like some trusted third party safeguards the physical goods while the transaction is in progress too. Not much like ebay, really, I think this guy is clutching at straws. Then again, IANAL.
The fact remains that you are not licensed to use the product
That's preposterous. I own it. I can use it. I never got a licence agreement to use my car's engine management software either, but I'm confident that I'm not breaking the law by driving my car.
(The seller does not have the power to transfer the license,
US Code Title 17 Chapter 1 Section 109a gives him the right... Unless he's signed a contract waiving that right. Is it made clear to the purchaser that they are not purchasing a product that can be used subject to the law like any other?
Cisco's terms are that you run a specific version of code on a specific platform
And my terms are that the law applies unless I have signed a contract that waives my legal rights.
When I flew to China, I was told that no battery-powered equipment was allowed in the hold. I would never send a laptop in as hold luggage, well... not again anyway.
The company is in talks to sell the Bol.com network of sites to e-tailing giant Amazon.
Damn, I was hoping that this would mean that I can use bol.com, but sadly no. Bertelsmann were Nazi propagandists (and gained their current status as Europe's largest publishing company because of this) and now Amazon are patent abusers. Ho hum.
Is it possible to buy a CISCO router without having signed a licence agreement, or clicked a click-through? If so, is it possible to copy the software off that router? If so, there's no lawbreaking occur here. In any case, clicking on a button does not make a binding contract. That's crazy talk. If I've bought (or legally acquired) a software package, and part of that software displays a button that I can click, then I am within my rights to click that button, without obligation, because I own the software and clicking buttons is within my fair use rights. I suppose downloading software after a click-through maybe enforceable, but if I copy it off an existing router that I own, then that, IMO, is legal.
By your logic, if I have not agreed to a Microsoft license and have not signed a contract with them, I would have a legal right to pirate their software.
If by "pirate" you mean "download from a warez site", then no. If you have legally acquired a copy, then you have the right to use it yourself in whatever manner you see fit. This is not piracy. If I buy a book, I can make personal copies of any pages within that book, even up to the extent of copying the entire book for personal use. I can even read the original, and refer to the copied pages simultaneously. The same law applies to software - unless you live in a UCITA state in the US, that is.
BTW:
Copyright n. Abbr. c. or cop.
The legal right granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work.
I think "production" is used in the context of "production of a musical".
Because it is illegal and you will go to jail for stealing CISCO's intellectual property.
And what if I already own a real CISCO router? I can copy the software onto my hacked-up workalike, legally. Sure the "licence agreement" might tell me that it's illegal, but I don't accept that. Unless I signed a contract with CISCO, I can copy the software for personal use. IMO.
And modifying and redistributing a binary is not a copyright violation?
I didn't realise that was what is happening. Are they redistributing it, or are they just supplying a modified version to customers that are legitimately acquiring the software? If I buy a copy of Windows, modify it, and then sell it on, I don't think that is illegal.
DVD Enabler modified iDVD so the application would save completed DVDs to a FireWire-connected drive.
There's nothing in the article that says that the dealer was redistributing copyright material anyway, and if they were, Apple could use traditional copyright law.
Slashdot Mirror
So what can't you do with GPL'd code, that you can do with any other code that you don't own the copyright to?
And I was thinking of croupier.
That doesn't help me at all. Please enlighten me.
It isn't reasonable to talk about what the world would be like if the US were suddenly not there - as the saying goes, if it didn't exist, you'd have to invent it. If there were no US, then there would be another country with similar influence and power; there wouldn't just be a big US-shaped hole. Also, don't underestimate how much of the US's power and influence is due to the rest of the world trading with you, enabling the amassing of wealth that you seem to be rather good at. And if your borders were closed, you wouldn't have gotten access to all those German scientists that created the space programme. They'd've been working on the Nazi space programme instead. =:-O
Sorry if it came over badly, but I didn't call you ignorant. I said that you are hopelessly optimistic. I don't believe that DRM will ever be a positive influence.
Not going to happen. The only DRM system that is going to get incorporated into home electronics will be the one that Sony likes. Sorry I misunderstood you - I mistook hopeless optimism for ignorance.
So you're prepared to say "tough titties" to the majority of the population, in order to remove the threat to the purses of Big Media. Just so long as we know where you stand.
Read the patent, it talks about "vetted bailee" and other implementation details.
It looks to me like the patent is pretty specific, and specifies that the goods change hands but stay on the market, so I buy something from you, and then increase the price but leave it on sale "thereby to allow the purchaser to speculate on the price of collectibles in an electronic market for used goods while assuring the safe and trusted physical possession of a good with a vetted bailee". Sounds like some trusted third party safeguards the physical goods while the transaction is in progress too. Not much like ebay, really, I think this guy is clutching at straws. Then again, IANAL.
Technically it's an amorphous solid.
When I flew to China, I was told that no battery-powered equipment was allowed in the hold. I would never send a laptop in as hold luggage, well ... not again anyway.
Ex-owner of a Toshiba Libretto.
Is it possible to buy a CISCO router without having signed a licence agreement, or clicked a click-through? If so, is it possible to copy the software off that router? If so, there's no lawbreaking occur here. In any case, clicking on a button does not make a binding contract. That's crazy talk. If I've bought (or legally acquired) a software package, and part of that software displays a button that I can click, then I am within my rights to click that button, without obligation, because I own the software and clicking buttons is within my fair use rights. I suppose downloading software after a click-through maybe enforceable, but if I copy it off an existing router that I own, then that, IMO, is legal.
BTW:
Copyright
n. Abbr. c. or cop. I think "production" is used in the context of "production of a musical".