Copyright violation is serious business, in open source and otherwise. A copyright violation in the BSD code base could affect a lot of folks. You could argue that he cc'ed too many people, but to keep the matter private would have been unethical. If this violation was accidental (and I imagine it was), I feel bad for Marcus. But not too bad. This whole thing will blow over and everybody will move on with their lives, hopefully a little bit more mindful of the nuances of copyright.
OTOH, if we look at the end to justify the means (educational value aside), this was a loss for all involved. Let's develop in peace.
I could not agree more, although there are so many people who fail to understand this. Of course, some folks will lack on face to face communication; Open Source developers in particular would be lucky to meet each other once a year, but I've met too many programmers whose notion of collaboration does not extend beyond using the same CVS server.
Doh. I just figured out why my vpn is slow even though I have fast internet.
That's with Cox cable btw. I get about 3 megabit down normally, and work is on 6mb symmetric, yet X is somehow unusably slow over the VPN, and VNC is better but still slow. Pings are usually 30ms to places in town, but around 300 over the VPN.
Darn. I asked because I'm in a similar situation. Of course I can't find a Wii, so it's not a problem now, but I would like to get one at some point. I'll have to put the TV by the heater by day and by the window at night:)
No, the DMCA prohibits the distribution of tools that facilitate decryption of DRMed content. It says nothing about MP3s. Still Microsoft can't allow unfettered sharing, because they want to make money on content. That means staying in the good graces of the RIAA and such.
The NT Kernel couldn't have existed without UNIX having done all the work ahead of time. And the Intellimouse Explorer? You've got to be kidding me, right? Only in the sense that every modern operating system shares some of those ideas. Every other company in the world makes a Unix knockoff and you're going to accuse Microsoft? I'd say they made the most original surviving operating system from that era.
The legal issue seems to be that you can sue anybody for anything, if you have the time and money. Bonus points if the taxpayers have to pay for it too.
GP's argument is still valid. Any of those features would make this minimal box superior to an antenna. Personally I don't think it would be so wrong for congress to subsidize my new TiVo, but some people out there get pissed off any time the government does anything to help "rich" people. I don't see any ban on RF/coax output to channel 3.
I dunno what would be the "entire cost," but nobody's ever gonna charge less than what the feds will pay for these boxes, so it makes sense to set it at close to but below the minimum possible cost of production. That way everyone saves tax dollars, and those who need more boxes or have to buy them for whatever reason save too.
At the risk of waxing existential, what else do you want? I mean sex clearly, but unfortunately you can't mandate that the government provide that for you. Spiritual fulfillment? Not their job either.
Bread and circuses sounds pretty good to me. Then again maybe I'm just hungry and bored.
I can't do the iTunes thing. The DRM bothers me too much, because I'm forced to keep the files on my HD forever, and I can never make a DVD that I can just put in and play. Also it takes some contrivance to get it on my TV, although most of my friends are not bothered by this.
If they would sell burnable shows, I would totally buy them. Until then I'll just have to record them on a DVR.
'Round here analog cable is the same price as digital, except maybe for the most basic package (meaning channels you could get OTA if you had an antenna but maybe you can't b/c you live behind a tall building or something). Was in Houston too. Thing is, they want you to switch to digital, as in the long run it will save them the bandwidth they use on analog channels now.
The *really* shitty part is that even with a digital decoder, the analog channels are still analog, and you still have all the same crappy signal problems from which cable has always suffered. Some of the true digital channels (mostly Discovery and the like) look almost as good as HD IMO and certainly as good as a DVD. Then again some of them look like crap, but at least there aren't any signal problems.
And a BSD userland could have been put on top of the Linux kernel, in theory.
It's interesting that no one fights about who really deserves credit for Windows. Maybe because those guys are millionaires now they don't feel the need for personal recognition.
You and me and everyone else who ever contributed to the open source applications that actually make Linux a viable alternative to Windows and the venerable MS stack, to Solaris and the rest of the SunOS package, deserve some credit. If you want to be pedantic, go grep some changelogs and draw your own conclusions.
Agreed. It's not hard at all to make an account. I think the benefit of making people register outweighs the disadvantage of forcing them to. Of course, this is mostly because some people/bots will edit anything when they are anonymous.
I realize I'm nit-picking on your comment here, but the Discovery channels do offer good stuff. I can't imagine all the stuff on the Military channels was licensed from the BBC.
I won't speak to quality, as that is subjective, but Discovery (commercial) seems to have the BBC (publicly funded) beat on sheer amount of documentary content.
Yes, but how many articles are there that are controversial and worth reading? Every one of those admins "owns" at least one, GFDL aside. That's why people feel it's bureaucratic.
Nobody cares if you correct a release date on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game but try and tell the truth about diamonds and you better watch out.
I, for one, did not realize you weren't supposed to cite Wikipedia. This could explain some of my bad grades in college, although no one mentioned it explicitly.
No one seems to have a problem with me using the computer-related articles to do my work. Of course, for many of these articles, Wikipedia is like the bible. It's true because it's in there and people reference it.
Slashdot Mirror
You probably wanted a response from Bruce, but...
Copyright violation is serious business, in open source and otherwise. A copyright violation in the BSD code base could affect a lot of folks. You could argue that he cc'ed too many people, but to keep the matter private would have been unethical. If this violation was accidental (and I imagine it was), I feel bad for Marcus. But not too bad. This whole thing will blow over and everybody will move on with their lives, hopefully a little bit more mindful of the nuances of copyright.
OTOH, if we look at the end to justify the means (educational value aside), this was a loss for all involved. Let's develop in peace.
I could not agree more, although there are so many people who fail to understand this. Of course, some folks will lack on face to face communication; Open Source developers in particular would be lucky to meet each other once a year, but I've met too many programmers whose notion of collaboration does not extend beyond using the same CVS server.
Maybe we all have aspergers.
Doh. I just figured out why my vpn is slow even though I have fast internet.
That's with Cox cable btw. I get about 3 megabit down normally, and work is on 6mb symmetric, yet X is somehow unusably slow over the VPN, and VNC is better but still slow. Pings are usually 30ms to places in town, but around 300 over the VPN.
Darn. I asked because I'm in a similar situation. Of course I can't find a Wii, so it's not a problem now, but I would like to get one at some point. I'll have to put the TV by the heater by day and by the window at night :)
No, the DMCA prohibits the distribution of tools that facilitate decryption of DRMed content. It says nothing about MP3s. Still Microsoft can't allow unfettered sharing, because they want to make money on content. That means staying in the good graces of the RIAA and such.
In front of a window is probably not the best place for your TV, but I hear you on the heater thing. Will curtains fix the window problem?
The legal issue seems to be that you can sue anybody for anything, if you have the time and money. Bonus points if the taxpayers have to pay for it too.
GP's argument is still valid. Any of those features would make this minimal box superior to an antenna. Personally I don't think it would be so wrong for congress to subsidize my new TiVo, but some people out there get pissed off any time the government does anything to help "rich" people.
I don't see any ban on RF/coax output to channel 3.
I dunno what would be the "entire cost," but nobody's ever gonna charge less than what the feds will pay for these boxes, so it makes sense to set it at close to but below the minimum possible cost of production. That way everyone saves tax dollars, and those who need more boxes or have to buy them for whatever reason save too.
At the risk of waxing existential, what else do you want? I mean sex clearly, but unfortunately you can't mandate that the government provide that for you. Spiritual fulfillment? Not their job either.
Bread and circuses sounds pretty good to me. Then again maybe I'm just hungry and bored.
Dell already sells some systems with FreeDOS. Presumably they are cheaper, but I haven't checked.
My notebook supports PAE.
Oh nevermind, it is limited to 3GB.
Wait what? Why does it have PAE?
I can't do the iTunes thing. The DRM bothers me too much, because I'm forced to keep the files on my HD forever, and I can never make a DVD that I can just put in and play. Also it takes some contrivance to get it on my TV, although most of my friends are not bothered by this.
If they would sell burnable shows, I would totally buy them. Until then I'll just have to record them on a DVR.
'Round here analog cable is the same price as digital, except maybe for the most basic package (meaning channels you could get OTA if you had an antenna but maybe you can't b/c you live behind a tall building or something). Was in Houston too. Thing is, they want you to switch to digital, as in the long run it will save them the bandwidth they use on analog channels now.
The *really* shitty part is that even with a digital decoder, the analog channels are still analog, and you still have all the same crappy signal problems from which cable has always suffered. Some of the true digital channels (mostly Discovery and the like) look almost as good as HD IMO and certainly as good as a DVD. Then again some of them look like crap, but at least there aren't any signal problems.
What about when the part where they smoke the joint?
And in some (US) states, if he was assaulting you at the time, you'd be justified in shooting him whether he had a warrant or not.
This is why in Texas, bounty hunters are badasses who prefer to to remain anonymous and in Hawaii you have Dogg, with his mp3 glasses.
'Nuff said.
I used to go to a liquor store that gave a 10% discount on some items for cash.
Something tells they were avoiding a little more than merchant fees.
Minimalism is nice. I still wish it didn't take me 10 minutes to add an icon to the "foot" menu or whatever gnome calls it.
Why do I need to know XML to add an icon? Drag and drop anybody? Someone please tell me if there's an easier way to do this.
And a BSD userland could have been put on top of the Linux kernel, in theory.
It's interesting that no one fights about who really deserves credit for Windows. Maybe because those guys are millionaires now they don't feel the need for personal recognition.
You and me and everyone else who ever contributed to the open source applications that actually make Linux a viable alternative to Windows and the venerable MS stack, to Solaris and the rest of the SunOS package, deserve some credit. If you want to be pedantic, go grep some changelogs and draw your own conclusions.
Agreed. It's not hard at all to make an account. I think the benefit of making people register outweighs the disadvantage of forcing them to. Of course, this is mostly because some people/bots will edit anything when they are anonymous.
It's been bandied around on here that Google offered to host the whole thing, and Wikipedia folk refused so as to avoid corporate influence.
It's all well and good right now. Google is free to use as much of Wikipedia as they want, as are we all, and Wikipedia is not that starved for cash.
I suppose Google could just give the project some money, with no restrictions, implied or explicit, but I don't feel they're obligated to do so.
I realize I'm nit-picking on your comment here, but the Discovery channels do offer good stuff. I can't imagine all the stuff on the Military channels was licensed from the BBC.
I won't speak to quality, as that is subjective, but Discovery (commercial) seems to have the BBC (publicly funded) beat on sheer amount of documentary content.
Yes, but how many articles are there that are controversial and worth reading? Every one of those admins "owns" at least one, GFDL aside. That's why people feel it's bureaucratic.
Nobody cares if you correct a release date on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game but try and tell the truth about diamonds and you better watch out.
I, for one, did not realize you weren't supposed to cite Wikipedia. This could explain some of my bad grades in college, although no one mentioned it explicitly.
No one seems to have a problem with me using the computer-related articles to do my work. Of course, for many of these articles, Wikipedia is like the bible. It's true because it's in there and people reference it.