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User: QuantumG

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Comments · 11,687

  1. Re:Doesn't the program source carry credits?? on GPL Hard to Enforce? · · Score: 1

    More to the point, if you don't put a copyright notice at the top of your source code and state that it is available under the GPL (or whatever license you like) it doesn't matter if there happens to be a LICENSE file in the same directory. If the top of your source code just looks like this: /* Copyright Steve Jobs, 1992-1994 */

    That means you are reserving all rights and having GPL.txt in the same directory implies nothing. You might have some GPL licensed tool in your tarball that you use in your build process and that's why you've put GPL.txt in the same directory.

    The fact that an associate professor of law would make any such claim to the contrary just goes to show that there's a lot of difference between law theory and law practice.

  2. Sigh, more morons reported on Slashdot on GPL Hard to Enforce? · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Everytime random lawyer X says something about Open Source without doing a trivial amount of fact checking it gets reported on Slashdot. Braindead news. If Lucie Guibault, assistant professor of intellectual-property law at the Institute for Information Law in Amsterdam had bothered to go read "How to use the GPL or LGPL" she would have noted that the way to use the GPL is to state ON YOUR SOURCE CODE that it is copyright to you and that it is released under the TERMS OF THE GPL. Obviously if you don't do this you're not releasing your source code under the GPL, but in that case you're giving your source code out under NO LICENSE which means that others have NO RIGHTS to reuse the code.

    Then to point out the even greater boneheadedness of this story, let's say that EvilMegaCorp went to court and said "oh, we didn't think you owned this copyright, we thought the FSF did" and the judge agreed, the FSF would be in court the next day saying "no, we didn't write it, we wrote the license, but if you'd like to name us as the author of the software we'll gladly defend the copyright on it."

    So STFU and get back to teaching students how to swindle.

  3. Re:that's the way it's supposed to work on IT Giants Accused of Exploiting Open Source · · Score: 1

    The guy's an idiot. Everyone else on the panel felt embarassed and hoped he'd shut up as quickly as possible. Analysing anything he says is a waste of time. But hey, so is posting on Slashdot.

  4. Re:Hmph on IT Giants Accused of Exploiting Open Source · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    The guy's a wanker, yah, let's move on.

  5. Re:The hand that feeds them on IT Giants Accused of Exploiting Open Source · · Score: 1

    That's happening anyway. No-one works on OOo except Sun employees (oh and 3 community dudes now and then). More people work on KOffice and other word processors. Of course, KOffice isn't a drop in replacement for Microsoft Office the way OOo is intended to be, and that means users of KOffice actually have to learn something and they don't like that.

  6. Re:The new dot-com nonsense on Blogging For Paychecks · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's clear you don't know what you are talking about as you failed to use any words ending in "sphere" (for example blogosphere, papersphere, buzzesphere, etc)

  7. Re:We opted not to have children on Genetic Testing For Geekiness? · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't it be nice if our generation was the one to solve that pesky aging problem. All of a sudden the kids-be-damned among us would be vindicated and the breeders would be the bad guys.

    As for your questions. What gas will there be to pump? And I already pump my own gas. Hopefully by the time I need heart surgery we'll have groovy mechanisms for repairing them (or replacing them with bionic/cloned ones). Planes should be automated, as should cars, and they should be so damn cheap to rent that it is economically insane to own.

  8. Re:Rule of thumb: Wired Wireless on Cell Phone Service as High Speed Internet Link? · · Score: 1

    Duh! Programmer access.

  9. Re:Rule of thumb: Wired Wireless on Cell Phone Service as High Speed Internet Link? · · Score: 1

    Must be a bitch when an agent is chasing ya.

  10. Re:We opted not to have children on Genetic Testing For Geekiness? · · Score: 1

    There's a lot more educated ways to contribute to the future. Leave the breeding to the suburbanites.

  11. Re:geekiness is overrated on Genetic Testing For Geekiness? · · Score: 1

    And the guy who earns $40million is clearly a leech on society and the guy who slaves away and refines an obscure theory of science for less than people earn working at Walmart is a precious gem.

  12. Re:Yes, but.. on 60% Of U.S. Believe Life Exists On Other Planets · · Score: 1

    Yes, it's the Nazi stuff I was talking about. The parent post was trying to imply that because the USA is a "perfect" democracy that democracy isn't just an advanced form of mob rule. Sorry to bag your country to make my point that the USA isn't the only democracy on earth. Oh, and before the French jump down my throat too, in France you can get arrested for handing out leaflets that attempt to "justify" a terrorist action. I happen to know this as friends of mine got arrested for handing out leaflets justifying the 9/11 attacks and for handing out leaflets 2 years later criticising France for not participating in the war in Iraq. In other words, any unpopular political message is regularly squashed in France.

  13. Re:Why agree at all? on 60% Of U.S. Believe Life Exists On Other Planets · · Score: 1

    Alternatively, no-one will be happy with the rules imposed on themselves or others.

  14. Re:Yes, but.. on 60% Of U.S. Believe Life Exists On Other Planets · · Score: 1

    If you've got a bunch of Utilitarians living together then that would make sense wouldn't it? I, personally, would rather live in a society which is ruled by the logic derived from axioms based on personal liberty.. but each to his own. Unfortuately we all seem to live in societies which are ruled by the logic derived from axioms based on scarcity and the transfer of wealth. So whenever there is a decision to be made by government you know that the choice made has more to do with who is lining the pocket of your representative than it has to do with the agreed upon principles of your society.

  15. Re:Yes, but.. on 60% Of U.S. Believe Life Exists On Other Planets · · Score: 1

    Ok, let's try again, really slowly this time. I said that democracy was like mob rule. You said that democracy wasn't like mob rule because a specific example of democracy, i.e., the USA was not like mob rule. Your argument simply doesn't hold because there are plenty of countries on this earth which you would call democratic that do not have the same checks and balances as the USA does. As for examples, I've already given you one, the former Yugoslav states, but if you'd like another one, how about Britian or Australia? Here in Australia we often trample on people's right to free speech (for example) because the majority feels the minority should not be able to say those things which upset the majority. Want another example? How about France or Germany where handing out leaflets in the street will get you arrested. How could this possibly happen in a democracy? After all, it can't happen in the USA (a specific example of a democracy) so how can it happen in any other democracy.

  16. Re:YRO? on School-Lunch Monitoring System for Parents · · Score: 1

    They're refered to as "animal rights" laws by animal rights activists and people too ignorant to recognise that they are propagating someone else's polical opinion. You know, the people who think that humans "enslave" animals for food production and apes should have the vote.

  17. Re:Yes, but.. on 60% Of U.S. Believe Life Exists On Other Planets · · Score: 1

    What you're not getting is that the USA isn't the only democratic government on earth. Jesus, why am I even surprised about this?

  18. Re:Yes, but.. on 60% Of U.S. Believe Life Exists On Other Planets · · Score: 1

    What you just said is that democracy is not mob rule because a democratic consistitutional republic such as the USA has checks and balances. That's like saying that apples are not suseptible to pests because you use herbicides to keep pests away.

  19. Re:Yes, but.. on 60% Of U.S. Believe Life Exists On Other Planets · · Score: 1

    Seeing as direct democracy has never been implemented, I think it is fair to say that we're being generous by prepending the word "representative" to democracy. A world where everyone voted directly on every issue of government would be a world where we never stop voting.

  20. Re:Yes, but.. on 60% Of U.S. Believe Life Exists On Other Planets · · Score: 1

    Your constitutional republic is a form of democracy. There have been countries which are constitutional republics and have no claims to democracy. For example, the former Yugoslavia.

  21. Re:YRO? on School-Lunch Monitoring System for Parents · · Score: 1

    No. The fact that I'm not allowed to have sex with animals doesn't imply animals have any special rights. It's just a right you don't have.

  22. Re:Yes, but.. on 60% Of U.S. Believe Life Exists On Other Planets · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well ya know, you shouldn't lock your mind into ancient alternatives to democracy. Why is it not acceptable to wish for something better? Democracy is just mob rule. Obviously suggesting that we should replace it with a dictatorship is a step backwards, but are there any steps forward? I personally think that for most every social issue there is a right and a wrong solution. I don't think democracy finds the right solution as often as it should (especially not the representative democracy under which us westerners live). The problem of course is that people don't agree. If we all agreed to live under a system of rules (a real system based on axioms, not case analysis) we could justify every action that our government makes mathematically. But how do you agree on the axioms? We come back to democracy.

  23. Yes, but.. on 60% Of U.S. Believe Life Exists On Other Planets · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the vast majority of people also believe in Astrology. A large percentage of people believe that earth has already been visited by aliens (in particular to help build the pyramids) and some people believe that aliens are studying earth right now.

  24. Re:100% Ack on A Gamer's Manifesto · · Score: 1

    When was the last 3d flying game that was actually fun? I'm thinking "Red Barron" but even that had a "realism" mode.

  25. Re:Better AI: do you really want it? on A Gamer's Manifesto · · Score: 1

    OF cheats alright, when you warez the game. Brillant copy protection.