Is there a lawyer in the house that can explain why if I pay for something that doesn't give me the standing to complain about it?
It's like if you start bitching and moaning about how Toyota is running its company, when you only own ONE share. Yeah, good luck with that. Now if you earn a big enough chunk of the company, you might be able to get enough support to get a case, and have the board of directors changed. But as a single tax payer, the government is NOT going to listen to you. Ever. Your only chance to make a difference is at the ballot box - and even then you have to pick between processed, nicely packaged candidate (A) vs. processed, nicely packaged candidate (B).
The only way to REALLY change things is with enough AK-47's, and even then it's only temporary.
Enjoy your dictatorship, America. Bush and his cronies can do no wrong, and can block and dismiss any attempt to see JUST HOW FAR they have gone. At least until after the next election. If there IS an election. You guys still have them, right?
It is common knowledge that copyright infringement is a gateway anti-social behavior, leading rapidly to contempt for authority, drug abuse, armed robbery, rape and murder, in that order.
What about terrorism and pedophilia? You forgot terrorism and pedophilia!
That is the sort of hacking that frightens the FCC
And with their infallible logic they conclude that closed source means you cannot remove restrictions, transmit on forbidden channels/power levels and bypass broadcast flags. Because no closed source program ever has been bypassed, modified or otherwise hacked. Days and even hours after its release.
When will these people learn that the PEOPLE have the power, not the government? We the masses obey ONLY when it suits us. If they have to go to such great lengths to try to limit us, perhaps what they are trying to do is not such a good idea after all? They just don't get it.
I wouldn't be surprised if the battery has a built in expiry date too, after which it "fails" (for your safety of course) and you have to get a new one. Hey if it works for printer ink, why not batteries?
Prehaps it would be smarter to spend resources finding and providing care for unbalanced people, rather than banning anything
But that means WORK! Whereas banning means REVENUE! Violated the ban? 30 days in jail (which amounts to nothing because of your "get out of jail free if not a violent offender" card) and a fine of XXX pounds.
But you propose actually training people to help others with their problems? And what happens when those people STILL have problems (after all, "unstable people" and "terrorists" are limitless)? That's political suicide. Much easier to draft a short, simple law that is completely meaningless since you can't ban the internet, however is extremely useful when you want to apply it arbitrarily to your political enemies or the "enemies of the state"; whoever they happen to be today.
maybe not the slashdot worm but I HAVE noticed that a small flash window appears over my username (under "Slashdot it is what IT is", top left) from time to time. Seems like I can't see my personal info without clicking this flash window unless I manually close it.
Patents restrict the rights of others, and guarantee the "author"'s rights. The idea was that this lets the author make a lot money by manufacturing his product. So yes and no. Patents aren't strictly money (otherwise the government would simply hand the author a fat cash subsidy for his invention). The author still has the job of actually trying to earn money from his invention.
But now enter the Jackpot Justice legal system. Why should I go through all the bother (and risk!) of trying to manufacture something and bring it to market, when I can simply sit on the patent and sue the first poor bastard who actually makes money from a similar idea, and earn millions?
Why do you think health care is so expensive in the US? Do you REALLY think your doctor wants to charge as much as he does? He charges what he does because he has to pay anywhere between $20,000 and $60,000 a YEAR just in malpractice insurance. Why? Because there's a LINE of people dying to get a chance at a million dollar malpractice suit, and the idiot judges award millions of dollars constantly because after all, it's not like it's their money anyway. So insurance is expensive. A $0.01 piece of plastic is $2 because it's "medical equiment" and the manufacturer of that equipment has to cover himself. Etc.
This is what happens when you give money away. People get greedy. The situation with patents is no different. Companies are salivating at the idea of owning submarine patents and nailing others with them. It has all been distorted out of proportion. Frankly I don't expect the situation to get any better, either. Human greed is limitless.
M$ has nothing to gain by releasing this information, and everything to lose.
I beg to differ:
They have EVERYTHING to gain - open source coders will alter their code so that it no longer violates MS patents.
They have NOTHING to lose - releasing a list won't cost them anything - presumably they already HAVE it.
Oh oh I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN - you mean they will lose potential "damages" from a "lawsuit"? Right I forgot for a second, it's about MONEY - no one CARES about the patent really - it's just a means to an end, right?
It's the same with all the other open source shit. Kids with an itch to scratch and an ego to stroke just wank their keyboards in a pathetic attempt to save the world.
How many web servers use linux "open source shit"?
they're made safe by the CC companies taking the risk of BS charges.
And so they should - at 5% or whatever it is they charge in commission - the risk should ALL be theirs. The technology has been paid for by now and so has the infrastructure. That's a lot of profit, and the huge profits banks have seen in the past few years has reflected that (ok they're in trouble now, but sub-prime is a whole different ballgame).
such as oxygen, for example? or such as something of which you are ignorant?
Here we go. Your argument is flawed. Oxygen DOES exist. If I take it away, you die.
Ignorance? You want to fill that "gap" with God go right ahead. There's a damned good chance that there's nothing there, however, because THERE IS NOTHING THERE. NOTHING is actually more likely than an undetectable being with magical powers that requires convoluted reasoning and non sequiturs to justify its existence.
Far more straigtforward to admit that the whole concept of God, heaven and hell were created by man to keep the plebe in line and to force political alliance based on "moral" convictions. Not to mention it's a huge source of revenue since the world is FULL of stupid people.
God = Santa Claus for adults. Psst, I have news for you - there's no Santa Claus either.
Slashdot Mirror
Is there a lawyer in the house that can explain why if I pay for something that doesn't give me the standing to complain about it?
It's like if you start bitching and moaning about how Toyota is running its company, when you only own ONE share. Yeah, good luck with that. Now if you earn a big enough chunk of the company, you might be able to get enough support to get a case, and have the board of directors changed. But as a single tax payer, the government is NOT going to listen to you. Ever. Your only chance to make a difference is at the ballot box - and even then you have to pick between processed, nicely packaged candidate (A) vs. processed, nicely packaged candidate (B).
The only way to REALLY change things is with enough AK-47's, and even then it's only temporary.
Don't forget the screaming 9 month old!
Enjoy your dictatorship, America. Bush and his cronies can do no wrong, and can block and dismiss any attempt to see JUST HOW FAR they have gone. At least until after the next election. If there IS an election. You guys still have them, right?
whereas possibly 1 in 50,000 has the reverse-engineering skills to understand (and possibly modify) binary-only systems.
Irrelevant. It only takes ONE. Welcome to the information age.
So, in essence, they claim that New York and Canada account for 90% of the problem... These numbers sound totally made up to me.
Either way they are too late
It is common knowledge that copyright infringement is a gateway anti-social behavior, leading rapidly to contempt for authority, drug abuse, armed robbery, rape and murder, in that order.
What about terrorism and pedophilia? You forgot terrorism and pedophilia!
That is the sort of hacking that frightens the FCC
And with their infallible logic they conclude that closed source means you cannot remove restrictions, transmit on forbidden channels/power levels and bypass broadcast flags. Because no closed source program ever has been bypassed, modified or otherwise hacked. Days and even hours after its release.
When will these people learn that the PEOPLE have the power, not the government? We the masses obey ONLY when it suits us. If they have to go to such great lengths to try to limit us, perhaps what they are trying to do is not such a good idea after all? They just don't get it.
I'm used to it. It's the puppies. I get a lot less mod points since I got the sig about the puppies. I guess I'll have to bump it up to eight.
In other news, early adopters get screwed. Again.
I wouldn't be surprised if the battery has a built in expiry date too, after which it "fails" (for your safety of course) and you have to get a new one. Hey if it works for printer ink, why not batteries?
The entire thing was shot in front of a bluescreen
As if I really care which OS they used...
oh, wait...
Prehaps it would be smarter to spend resources finding and providing care for unbalanced people, rather than banning anything
But that means WORK! Whereas banning means REVENUE! Violated the ban? 30 days in jail (which amounts to nothing because of your "get out of jail free if not a violent offender" card) and a fine of XXX pounds.
But you propose actually training people to help others with their problems? And what happens when those people STILL have problems (after all, "unstable people" and "terrorists" are limitless)? That's political suicide. Much easier to draft a short, simple law that is completely meaningless since you can't ban the internet, however is extremely useful when you want to apply it arbitrarily to your political enemies or the "enemies of the state"; whoever they happen to be today.
You'd think they'd be working on the muslim problem instead of this.
But they ARE working on the Muslim problem. Perhaps if the UK bans everything and adopts the Sharia, the Muslim problem will go away. Allah u ackba
I'm going to get shit for this but:
So the Danes finally managed to clone "Mexicans"?
Whoa, my crackpot meter pegged with just the intro! Surely we can harness the heat from all this BS and solve our energy problems forever!
maybe not the slashdot worm but I HAVE noticed that a small flash window appears over my username (under "Slashdot it is what IT is", top left) from time to time. Seems like I can't see my personal info without clicking this flash window unless I manually close it.
Patents restrict the rights of others, and guarantee the "author"'s rights. The idea was that this lets the author make a lot money by manufacturing his product. So yes and no. Patents aren't strictly money (otherwise the government would simply hand the author a fat cash subsidy for his invention). The author still has the job of actually trying to earn money from his invention.
But now enter the Jackpot Justice legal system. Why should I go through all the bother (and risk!) of trying to manufacture something and bring it to market, when I can simply sit on the patent and sue the first poor bastard who actually makes money from a similar idea, and earn millions?
Why do you think health care is so expensive in the US? Do you REALLY think your doctor wants to charge as much as he does? He charges what he does because he has to pay anywhere between $20,000 and $60,000 a YEAR just in malpractice insurance. Why? Because there's a LINE of people dying to get a chance at a million dollar malpractice suit, and the idiot judges award millions of dollars constantly because after all, it's not like it's their money anyway. So insurance is expensive. A $0.01 piece of plastic is $2 because it's "medical equiment" and the manufacturer of that equipment has to cover himself. Etc.
This is what happens when you give money away. People get greedy. The situation with patents is no different. Companies are salivating at the idea of owning submarine patents and nailing others with them. It has all been distorted out of proportion. Frankly I don't expect the situation to get any better, either. Human greed is limitless.
You did this.
Actually, Diebold did it.
M$ has nothing to gain by releasing this information, and everything to lose.
I beg to differ:
They have EVERYTHING to gain - open source coders will alter their code so that it no longer violates MS patents.
They have NOTHING to lose - releasing a list won't cost them anything - presumably they already HAVE it.
Oh oh I SEE WHAT YOU MEAN - you mean they will lose potential "damages" from a "lawsuit"? Right I forgot for a second, it's about MONEY - no one CARES about the patent really - it's just a means to an end, right?
It's the same with all the other open source shit. Kids with an itch to scratch and an ego to stroke just wank their keyboards in a pathetic attempt to save the world.
How many web servers use linux "open source shit"?
they're made safe by the CC companies taking the risk of BS charges.
And so they should - at 5% or whatever it is they charge in commission - the risk should ALL be theirs. The technology has been paid for by now and so has the infrastructure. That's a lot of profit, and the huge profits banks have seen in the past few years has reflected that (ok they're in trouble now, but sub-prime is a whole different ballgame).
But then again, the RIAA do not write operating systems yet.
No, they just outsource to Microsoft...
such as oxygen, for example? or such as something of which you are ignorant?
Here we go. Your argument is flawed. Oxygen DOES exist. If I take it away, you die.
Ignorance? You want to fill that "gap" with God go right ahead. There's a damned good chance that there's nothing there, however, because THERE IS NOTHING THERE. NOTHING is actually more likely than an undetectable being with magical powers that requires convoluted reasoning and non sequiturs to justify its existence.
Far more straigtforward to admit that the whole concept of God, heaven and hell were created by man to keep the plebe in line and to force political alliance based on "moral" convictions. Not to mention it's a huge source of revenue since the world is FULL of stupid people.
God = Santa Claus for adults. Psst, I have news for you - there's no Santa Claus either.
No, neither of them do.
when the first batch of Blue whales wash up, dead from clogged Baleen plates full of plastic ducks...
Umm, the ducks float.
Can't remember seeing many blue whales skimming the surface for plankton.
Say all the smart people are busy understanding these BS conspiracy theories...
No, actually the REALLY smart people just shake their heads at all the idiots who fall for this crap.