The problem with that is that what the RIAA wants to do is move the burden of dealing with copyright infringement (a civil matter) onto the government. For those who copy and sell CDs (which is more a problem in foreign countries), yes they are committing piracy and should be hunted down and arrested for their acts.
However, file-sharing is not piracy, but copyright infringement. The established legal procedure to deal with copyright infringement requires that the owner of the copyright (or their legal representative) bring a case against the infringing person/persons. While the law has been broken, it does not carry criminal penalties and so it is not the government's responsibility to crack down on it.
That is why the FSF can only force people to comply with the GPL if they already own the copyright on the code. If you hold the copyright instead, then they have no legal right to bring a copyright infringement suite.
If you go to Microsoft's home page and look up XP Embeded you can find their product documentation. The first line of the documentation reads Based on the proven code base of Windows XP, Windows XP Embedded enables you to rapidly develop reliable and full-featured connected devices.
If you go farther to their Getting Started with Windows XP Embeded page, it adds some more interesting notes, such as Based on the same binary files as Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Embedded enables you to rapidly develop reliable and full-featured connected devices. and You can use standard, off-the-shelf x86 hardware components in your Windows XP Embedded designs. In addition, because Windows XP Embedded supports the Microsoft Win32® application programming interface (API), you can use Win32 applications, drivers, or services in your embedded designs with little or no porting required.
This doesn't sound to me like it is impossible to be able to run other software of XP Embeded. In fact, they specifically claim that you can. It should not be too difficult for them to modify it to automatically check dependencies as needed.
When my father joined the navy, he took the same oath that the President of the United States, the Vice President, Senators, Congressmen and judges take, namely to "preserve protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foriegn and domestic". His oath was not to the President, Congress or any other person/entity. If the President and/or Congress started to act unconstitutionally, the military would join the rebellion, not fight against it. That is why an officer cannot be ordered to do something unconstitutional, because his oath take precedence over his orders.
8.2 does contain KDE 3.0 packages, but not as the default. The specifically state that they are providing the latest stable release (2.2.2) as well as version 3.0(RC2, I believe) for those who want the "bleeding edge".
The Earth has not yet reached the end of its resources. There have been many studies that have shown that the earth is capable of supporting about five times its current population of humans (for a total of 25-30 billion people) just from the land masses alone (and not counting Antarctica). Even now, there is enough food grown in the world to meet the nutritional needs of every living being on Earth. We only lack the economic means to get it to each person and effectively distribute it.
That is not counting the resources we can get from the ocean as well. Kelp is an amazingly nutritious food that could be grown quite cheaply.
There are resources available, we only need to use them better.
I am opposed to the proposed settlement in the Microsoft antitrust trial. I feel that the current proposed settlement does not fully redress the actions committed by Microsoft in the past, nor inhibit their ability to commit similar actions in the future.
The vast majority of the provisions within the settlement only formalize the status quo. Of the remaining provisions, none will effectively prohibit Microsoft from abusing its current monopoly position in the operating system market. This is especially important in view of the seriousness of Microsoft's past transgressions.
Most important, the proposed settlement does nothing to correct Microsoft's previous actions. There are no provisions that correct or redress their previous abuses. They only prohibit the future repetition of those abuses. This, in my opinion, goes against the very foundation of law. If a person or organization is able to commit illegal acts, benefit from those acts and then receive as a "punishment" instructions that they cannot commit those acts again, they have still benefited from their illegal acts. That is not justice, not for the victims of their abuses and not for the American people in general.
While the Court's desire that a settlement be reached is well-intentioned, it is wrong to reach an unjust settlement just for settlement's sake. A wrong that is not corrected is compounded.
Sincerely,
My Name
It took me about 15 minutes to compose my thoughts and send the email, and I feel that it was well worth it.
People learn more from trying things and remembering mistakes they have made, so giving away free machines (running linux or whatever) would probably make a big difference to this digital divide thing.
Yes, that is true. Remember, though that we are talking about all sorts of people here. Many of them lack the basic skills needed to figure out where to go for the information.
That is one of the biggest problems brought about by today's educational systems: a lot of people do not know how to teach themselves what they need to know. In order to make ANY attempt to bridge the Digital divide successful, you need to include education for those receiving the help.
For example, if you wanted to start a program to increase the number of carpenters out there by giving all the woodworking tools they'd need away, it would do very little good. They still need to learn how to use the tools effectively. I'm sure that, over time, they could figure them out, but many people will not have that kind of patience.
As another poster has pointer out, the software costs are only part of the Digital Divide. In that area, Linux has many large advantages
However, there are other areas that are part of the Digital Divide. There is also the hardware aspect (the largest expense) and the knowledge aspect as well. Again, another poster has already discussed the hardware problems.
Even if we were to give every poor/underpriviledged person in America a free computer running Linux, it would do little to bridge the Digital Divide. With it, we would need to teach them at least the basics about how to use it and, more importantly, how to find instructions on how to do more. Tools without the knowledge of how to use them are useless.
For most of my major purchases, I prefer using credit cards, online payments, etc. I provides an extra level of security and tracability to my transactions.
However, I still like to carry a little cash around for emergencies. For example, I was in a store the other day when the phones went out. No one could make any payments by credit card or debit card. I, on the other hand, was able to buy my items using the high-tech $5 bill in my pocket.
Also, the more common electronic transactions are, the more security for them we will ahve to have, and the more infrastructure we need as well. If every soda machine were to take credit cards, every machine would need a separate phone line to contact the different credit card services. I personally thing that we don't have the infrastructure in place to handle this at this time.
Revenge is always terrible. You have a choice. You're not an animal or running under blind political or quasi-religous control. You have a choice. Revenge is not necessary.
I do not believe that the US will seek revenge. Instead it will seek justice. Revenge would involve striking out against everyone even remotely connected with the hijackings, their familys, their friends and any innocent bystanders. Justice would involve finding whoever is responsible and stopping them.
To say that a planet orbits the Sun, or that a satellite orbits a planet is misleading. It is more correct to say that the two bodies orbit a common centre of gravity.
This has been a point ignored and overlloked in many astonomy books. One of the few places I've seen this explaination on a regular basis is in Science Fiction novels. For example, Robert Heinlein was extremely fond of calling the Moon Luna and referring to it as another planet.
You could make quite a case for the Earth-Luna system being a binary planetary system because of the relative size of the two. Luna is only about 1/4 the diameter of the Earth! If we discovered a binary star system with a similar relationship, we would not hesitate to refer to it as a binary.
A lot of it goes back to our ancient views of the universe. We got so attracted to the idea that everything circles the Earth that it is hard to let it go. With more obvious examples, we have succeeded, but with a less-obvious example, such as this one, we still maintain this fiction. It is time to let it go.
In other news, the RIAA announced its deep dismay at the massive decrease in 8-track sales. "We feel that Napster and the other file-sharing networks have seriously impacted 8-track sales, causing a decrease of almost 100%," a RIAA spokesperson said.
-----
Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who was not there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away!
When I was looking for a notebook about 6 months ago, I gave myself two requirements: a DVD drive and a TV out port. All I need a notebook for is word processing and network access while I'm on the go. The DVD drive was a result of my wanting to splurge a bit.
Pretty much any notebook you get these days will meet your basic needs plus some. Unless you are going to do graphics editing on the go, just look around for the best deal you can find.
I wound up with a factory refurbished Compaq 17XL265 that came with Win98SE (and is now dual booting with Mandrake 8.0) for about $400 below retail.
> Uh? You can be prosecuted twice for the same crime. You just can't be CONVICTED twice for the same crime.
Actually, double jeopardy does not say that you cannot be prosecuted twice for the same crime, but that you can only be prosecuted once for any specific offense.
IOW, OJ Simpson cannot be charged with the murders of Nicoles Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. However, should he be accused of another murder, he could be prosecuted for that one. It is the same crime, but a separate offense.
Keep in mind that this is a simplified explaination, and IANAL.
Actually, in a way it's true. If you look at the Founding Fathers, they set up a system that allowed the people to have a voice in the government while placing checks and balances on their opportunities to get carried away by the "passions of the mob."
Their idea was not that the "people" were too dumb to make a good choice, but that they would not have the self-mastery to overlook prejudices and make rational decisions. Sadly, this is not the case.
That is in part why the Constitution was amended to allow for 1) the election of the President and Vice-president as a team (12th amendment) and 2) the direct election of Senators (17th amendment).
Representation does work. Maybe not the best system, but it does work.
I'm only a little older than you (21) and I have a slide rule. It was my mother's back when she was a physics major in colelge. I've even used it to take a physics exam in college. (I forgot my calculator.) I highly recommend that you find one and learn to use it. They are VERY easy to use, and very useful.
grylnsmn
Slashdot Mirror
However, file-sharing is not piracy, but copyright infringement. The established legal procedure to deal with copyright infringement requires that the owner of the copyright (or their legal representative) bring a case against the infringing person/persons. While the law has been broken, it does not carry criminal penalties and so it is not the government's responsibility to crack down on it.
That is why the FSF can only force people to comply with the GPL if they already own the copyright on the code. If you hold the copyright instead, then they have no legal right to bring a copyright infringement suite.
If you go farther to their Getting Started with Windows XP Embeded page, it adds some more interesting notes, such as Based on the same binary files as Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Embedded enables you to rapidly develop reliable and full-featured connected devices. and You can use standard, off-the-shelf x86 hardware components in your Windows XP Embedded designs. In addition, because Windows XP Embedded supports the Microsoft Win32® application programming interface (API), you can use Win32 applications, drivers, or services in your embedded designs with little or no porting required.
This doesn't sound to me like it is impossible to be able to run other software of XP Embeded. In fact, they specifically claim that you can. It should not be too difficult for them to modify it to automatically check dependencies as needed.
When my father joined the navy, he took the same oath that the President of the United States, the Vice President, Senators, Congressmen and judges take, namely to "preserve protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foriegn and domestic". His oath was not to the President, Congress or any other person/entity. If the President and/or Congress started to act unconstitutionally, the military would join the rebellion, not fight against it. That is why an officer cannot be ordered to do something unconstitutional, because his oath take precedence over his orders.
8.2 does contain KDE 3.0 packages, but not as the default. The specifically state that they are providing the latest stable release (2.2.2) as well as version 3.0(RC2, I believe) for those who want the "bleeding edge".
The Earth has not yet reached the end of its resources. There have been many studies that have shown that the earth is capable of supporting about five times its current population of humans (for a total of 25-30 billion people) just from the land masses alone (and not counting Antarctica). Even now, there is enough food grown in the world to meet the nutritional needs of every living being on Earth. We only lack the economic means to get it to each person and effectively distribute it.
That is not counting the resources we can get from the ocean as well. Kelp is an amazingly nutritious food that could be grown quite cheaply.
There are resources available, we only need to use them better.
To Whom It May Concern:
I am opposed to the proposed settlement in the Microsoft antitrust trial. I feel that the current proposed settlement does not fully redress the actions committed by Microsoft in the past, nor inhibit their ability to commit similar actions in the future.
The vast majority of the provisions within the settlement only formalize the status quo. Of the remaining provisions, none will effectively prohibit Microsoft from abusing its current monopoly position in the operating system market. This is especially important in view of the seriousness of Microsoft's past transgressions.
Most important, the proposed settlement does nothing to correct Microsoft's previous actions. There are no provisions that correct or redress their previous abuses. They only prohibit the future repetition of those abuses. This, in my opinion, goes against the very foundation of law. If a person or organization is able to commit illegal acts, benefit from those acts and then receive as a "punishment" instructions that they cannot commit those acts again, they have still benefited from their illegal acts. That is not justice, not for the victims of their abuses and not for the American people in general.
While the Court's desire that a settlement be reached is well-intentioned, it is wrong to reach an unjust settlement just for settlement's sake. A wrong that is not corrected is compounded.
Sincerely,
My Name
It took me about 15 minutes to compose my thoughts and send the email, and I feel that it was well worth it.
People learn more from trying things and remembering mistakes they have made, so giving away free machines (running linux or whatever) would probably make a big difference to this digital divide thing.
Yes, that is true. Remember, though that we are talking about all sorts of people here. Many of them lack the basic skills needed to figure out where to go for the information.
That is one of the biggest problems brought about by today's educational systems: a lot of people do not know how to teach themselves what they need to know. In order to make ANY attempt to bridge the Digital divide successful, you need to include education for those receiving the help.
For example, if you wanted to start a program to increase the number of carpenters out there by giving all the woodworking tools they'd need away, it would do very little good. They still need to learn how to use the tools effectively. I'm sure that, over time, they could figure them out, but many people will not have that kind of patience.
As another poster has pointer out, the software costs are only part of the Digital Divide. In that area, Linux has many large advantages
However, there are other areas that are part of the Digital Divide. There is also the hardware aspect (the largest expense) and the knowledge aspect as well. Again, another poster has already discussed the hardware problems.
Even if we were to give every poor/underpriviledged person in America a free computer running Linux, it would do little to bridge the Digital Divide. With it, we would need to teach them at least the basics about how to use it and, more importantly, how to find instructions on how to do more. Tools without the knowledge of how to use them are useless.
For most of my major purchases, I prefer using credit cards, online payments, etc. I provides an extra level of security and tracability to my transactions.
However, I still like to carry a little cash around for emergencies. For example, I was in a store the other day when the phones went out. No one could make any payments by credit card or debit card. I, on the other hand, was able to buy my items using the high-tech $5 bill in my pocket.
Also, the more common electronic transactions are, the more security for them we will ahve to have, and the more infrastructure we need as well. If every soda machine were to take credit cards, every machine would need a separate phone line to contact the different credit card services. I personally thing that we don't have the infrastructure in place to handle this at this time.
grylnsmn
I've never trusted Klingons, and I never will. I can never forgive them for the death of my boy.
Revenge is always terrible. You have a choice. You're not an animal or running under blind political or quasi-religous control. You have a choice. Revenge is not necessary.
I do not believe that the US will seek revenge. Instead it will seek justice. Revenge would involve striking out against everyone even remotely connected with the hijackings, their familys, their friends and any innocent bystanders. Justice would involve finding whoever is responsible and stopping them.
To say that a planet orbits the Sun, or that a satellite orbits a planet is misleading. It is more correct to say that the two bodies orbit a common centre of gravity.
This has been a point ignored and overlloked in many astonomy books. One of the few places I've seen this explaination on a regular basis is in Science Fiction novels. For example, Robert Heinlein was extremely fond of calling the Moon Luna and referring to it as another planet.
You could make quite a case for the Earth-Luna system being a binary planetary system because of the relative size of the two. Luna is only about 1/4 the diameter of the Earth! If we discovered a binary star system with a similar relationship, we would not hesitate to refer to it as a binary.
A lot of it goes back to our ancient views of the universe. We got so attracted to the idea that everything circles the Earth that it is hard to let it go. With more obvious examples, we have succeeded, but with a less-obvious example, such as this one, we still maintain this fiction. It is time to let it go.
grylnsmn
In other news, the RIAA announced its deep dismay at the massive decrease in 8-track sales. "We feel that Napster and the other file-sharing networks have seriously impacted 8-track sales, causing a decrease of almost 100%," a RIAA spokesperson said.
-----
Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who was not there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away!
When I was looking for a notebook about 6 months ago, I gave myself two requirements: a DVD drive and a TV out port. All I need a notebook for is word processing and network access while I'm on the go. The DVD drive was a result of my wanting to splurge a bit. Pretty much any notebook you get these days will meet your basic needs plus some. Unless you are going to do graphics editing on the go, just look around for the best deal you can find. I wound up with a factory refurbished Compaq 17XL265 that came with Win98SE (and is now dual booting with Mandrake 8.0) for about $400 below retail.
> Uh? You can be prosecuted twice for the same crime. You just can't be CONVICTED twice for the same crime.
Actually, double jeopardy does not say that you cannot be prosecuted twice for the same crime, but that you can only be prosecuted once for any specific offense.
IOW, OJ Simpson cannot be charged with the murders of Nicoles Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. However, should he be accused of another murder, he could be prosecuted for that one. It is the same crime, but a separate offense.
Keep in mind that this is a simplified explaination, and IANAL.
Richard Hutchison
Actually, in a way it's true. If you look at the Founding Fathers, they set up a system that allowed the people to have a voice in the government while placing checks and balances on their opportunities to get carried away by the "passions of the mob." Their idea was not that the "people" were too dumb to make a good choice, but that they would not have the self-mastery to overlook prejudices and make rational decisions. Sadly, this is not the case. That is in part why the Constitution was amended to allow for 1) the election of the President and Vice-president as a team (12th amendment) and 2) the direct election of Senators (17th amendment). Representation does work. Maybe not the best system, but it does work.
I'm only a little older than you (21) and I have a slide rule. It was my mother's back when she was a physics major in colelge. I've even used it to take a physics exam in college. (I forgot my calculator.) I highly recommend that you find one and learn to use it. They are VERY easy to use, and very useful. grylnsmn