The difference is that, with Open Source, the good guys can find AND FIX the holes. With closed source, you're dependant on the good will of the companies.
Would it really be so bad for unauthorized copying to be hard (in the strict computer science sense of the word) or even impossible?
But what about authorized copying (like, because want to watch the movie backwards, or listen to the music on my car stereo system, or critique the work, all uses protected under "Fair Use")? The problem with all of these is that there is no way to differentiate "fair use" copying from "unauthorized copying" - because the difference really comes into play when you distribute the the copy, not when you make it.
I'm not against elimination of copyright abuse (what you and the MPAA/RIAA/BSA love to call "piracy"), but I also recognize that I, the holder of the item, have rights. All of these schemes basically say "we don't trust you, so we're taking your rights away, trust us that we won't abuse that fact by doing things like pay-per-view".
The real solution is to sue the copyright violators in court. Of course, that's a legal solution to the problem, and it requires action on the part of the copyright holder, and it prevents the copyright holder from gaining additional power, but that's not my problem.
Be aware, that under copyright, unless you license your code, default copyright says others can't redistribute (they can copy for personal use, and make changes for personal use). Also, by default, when you write code, it's copyrighted. Thus, without some kind of license (or explicitly making it public domain), no one can use your stuff in code they distribute. So, if you truly don't care, attach a disclaimer stating that you're PD'ing the code.
If I want to take a piece of GPL'd code (say a library) and integrate it into my application, I have to license the application under a GPL-compatible license. Boom - infection.
So don't use GPL'd software in your apps. He who rights the code chooses the license - you don't like that person's license, don't use their code.
Um, no, Vistasource is continueing to support Applixware, they've just decided to integrate it with their line of server-based office apps (anyware).
here's one story on it (see the response at the bottom and a the direct link story. Note that the major change is the the name - from Applixware to Anyware Office Client. I don't know, but this may be because the original company, Applix, still exists, but doesn't do the office suite, they spun that off to VistaSource.
Big pet peeve of mine: assuming YOU know how I want to see your site. You don't know my screen, my eyesite, anything. HTML was meant to be structural, presentation is defined by the browser. Especially when I do browsing with lynx, because I want information.
For all the Flash / Image users out there who don't have text on their pages, remember this: all the search engines only index text. If you insist on Flash, you just dropped all the potential customers who used a search engine.
You've managed to miss the entire point of those quotes. Look again. "Intellectual Property" is NOT PROPERTY under the US Constitution. It's a set of rights granted by the Constitution to authors & inventors for purposes of encouraging them to make their works public. According to the constitution, neither the inventor or the author have a "right" to anything, however, in the interest of encouraging the publication of their works, they are GRANTED a right.
Actually, intellectual property in the US is NOT property, but a grant from the US government.
US Constitution, Article 1, Section 8:
The Congress shall have Power...
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
That's the sole justification in the Constitution for patent, copyright, and trademark.
From one of our founding fathers (Thomas Jefferson):
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. Society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them, as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility, but this may or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from any body Accordingly, it is a fact, as far as I am informed, that England was, until we copied her, the only country on earth which ever, by a general law, gave a legal right to the exclusive use of an idea. In some other countries it is sometimes done, in a great case, and by a special and personal act, but, generally speaking, other nations have thought that these monopolies produce more embarrassment than advantage to society; and it may be observed that the nations which refuse monopolies of invention, are as fruitful as England in new and useful devices.
Considering the exclusive right to invention as given not of natural right, but for the benefit of society, I know well the difficulty of drawing a line between the things which are worth to the public the embarrassment of an exclusive patent, and those which are not.
Also, violation of copyright is exactly that - violation of copyright. it is NOT theft.
> How can I sell open software without making it free
Short answer: by selling it. Oh, you want guaranteed profits. Nope, can't get that. See the Open Source definition at http://www.opensource.org/osd.html. Yes, you can charge, but you are limited because those downstream also have the right to do so, and can undercut you. If you don't give them this right, it's not Open Source. So, you charge for the packaging, support, etc. Note that the FSF sells tapes / CDs of FSF software. Key is you charge for services besides the continued selling of SW (support, custom modification, custom apps, etc).
Remember, fundamentally, if it can't be forked, it isn't open. Others have tried to get around this (Sun in particular), no one would play. If you want the benefits of Open Source, you have to accept the Open Source way.
For an example of a company that has created Free (libre) software, check out Digital Creations at
http://www.digicool.com/. Note that Cygnus Solutions made money on gcc / egcs (totally GPL'd) before being bought out by Red Hat.
Remember that there is basic level of support (e-mail, newsgroups) and more detailed / guaranteed levels of support (what companies expect).
1. Sell HW, support & professional services (Red Hat, Mission Critical Linux, VA Linux, IBM, Progeny, Stormix, Cygnus, etc). Yes, you can make a profit at this (Cygnus was profitable before they were bought by Red Hat, and all their products are GPL).
2. Dual-license (yes, you have to keep the sources separate, so they eventually drift apart, unless you require folks to assign copyright to you, and are good enough that they don't fork it).
If you want to sell proprietary software, the Open Source revolution will eliminate you. If, however, you look at where you can make money in the Open Source revolution, you may be rewarded (assuming your other business skills work).
Athena is currently restricted to systems running
a Linux kernel only, This restriction will change
once the Athena environment is released for the
Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows
systems. Standalone versions for PC machines
and game consoles will also be forthcoming.
The minimum system requirements for Linux
based machines are:
Kernel 2.0.x.x
16MB RAM.
16 bit capable graphics card or better.
90mhz Intel or compatible processor.
Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor (!).
3MB Hard Drive Space for installation.
X11 Window server.
Sure looks like they require X11 & Linux to me. BTW: What about the Alpha & SPARC I have at home? I note that it requires an Intel processor.
This looks like a closed, proprietary window manager. Maybe someday they'll port it to other systems, but note that up-front about "Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows systems" Hm. for an Operating system, it seems you need another OS in order to run (Linux, Mac, Windows). So, again, other than semantics, how is this an OS? I know the talk about "stand-alone" versions, sometime, maybe. Gee, right now, they don't even support 3D (something my GNOME box supports right now with OpenGL). BTW: Why do I want a GUI OS? What if I want to run it on my server & reflect back?
Oh, and I suggest reading the definition of Open Source. Key test: Can I fork the code? If not, whatever they release won't be Open Source (GPL or otherwise). Why should I depend on someone else to keep the system up to date? How do I know that if they currently support something, they will in the future? As someone else noted, look at the QT issues that finally resulted in TT GPL'ing QT. Why shouldn't Rocklyte expect a similar reaction to their proposal (in addition to all of the other ones)?
Sorry, nothing here that remotely interests me. Good luck, and I suspect Rocklyte will desparately need it.
Excuse me, a guy decides to kill seven people, and you blame the IRS? Yes, the guy was about to have his wages garnisheed. That's because he hadn't paid his taxes (something all USians with income above certain levels are required to do). Note that the IRS gave him a grace period till after the holidays, to try and minimize the stress.
So you're suggesting the IRS shouldn't come after anyone who doesn't pay their taxes, because they may commit murder? Right.
<sarcasm> Don't enforce the law, he might commit murder for you enforcing the law! What's next, not enforcing laws on bank robbery because the robber may kill people on getaway? Don't enforce speeding, someone may get pissed off and kill people!
</sarcasm>
And yes, it is different than police initiated high speed chases - the police(and the IRS) killed no one here, the McDermott did.
As Bruce Schneier (sp?) pointed out, at some point, the data is converted to clear, at which point it can be sniffed / copied. Once again, industry is trying to tackle a legal problem (rights to create new copies of data) with a technical solution (copy protection). The better solution is to tackle the legal problem - go after those who make illegal copies. Unfortunately:
a) that's hard, and costs money
b) it means recognizing there are legal copies
c) admitting they don't control the world.
Linux will NEVER support binary takeover of the kernel. Also, there is a legal DVD driver for Linux - part of the LiViD program, based on deCSS. Just because the DVDCCA says it's illegal doesn't make it so.
Folks in the US - WRITE your congrescritter (hard copy, not e-mail), let them know you oppose the takeovers via DMCA et al. Enough people feedback, they will start to listen.
Abiword and Gnumeric both use XML for their native format (especially if you're looking for an Excel-file format replacement - look at gnumeric). I don't know about the KOffice stuff, but I suspect it also uses XML.
Also be aware that XML is like SGML - it's a language for defining markups - the issue is the DTDs (Document Type Descriptions) that define the exact markup of a specific format.
And as a part of that, SGI has released their B2 code for Irix for Linux:
http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ob1/
Also, there's a Linux-privs project (at sourceforge, but sourceforge isn't responding right now), although the mailing list there has been quiet recently.
the only question that can possibly arise here, is whether they must assign copyright to Linus just to make their patches into mainstream kernels or not?
no.
Re:A year of Linux : Summery
on
A Year of Linux
·
· Score: 1
> sorry, any window manager my grandmother has to first compile is not innately "user-friendly"
And that would be? I've got Blackbox, Sawfish, WindowMaker, fvwm, plus both the GNOME & KDE environments, none of them compiled by me. Every distro I know of comes with them.
Maybe you should check out one of the following:
Red Hat
Mandrake
SuSE
TurboLinux
Debian
Stormix
Progeny
any of about 200 others.
A quick search at IBM's Patent Site indicates 2 patents - one filed 1975/granted 1977, one filed 1994/granted 1998.
Re:I know I'll be modded down, but bear with me he
on
Warez and Abandonware
·
· Score: 1
Warning: IP is not the same thing as tangible Property. To quote the US Constitution (basis of all US law), IP can be found in Section 1, Article 8:
(Congress shall have the power)
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
Take a look at that:
"Congress shall have the power to": I.e. it's not a given. Congress could repeal all IP tomorrow, and legally, it would cease to exist in the US. As opposed to tangible property, protected by the 5th Amendment.
"promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts": The purpose is to improve science & the arts. All Science & Art build on the past, so in order for the next generation to build, the ideas / writings need to be in the public domain. Note that the goal is NOT directly to make the holders of IP rich (much less their heirs).
"by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries": Here's where the IP protection comes in - we'll ensure you make money in exchange for putting your ideas in the public domain, thus promoting the above goal. Note that little phrase "limited Times" - it's not meant to be forever. Originally it was up to 28 years (1 14 year term + 1 extension of 14 years) for Copyright. Now Copyright is Life + 70 years, and was retroactively extended under the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act to 95 years for anything still under copyright, even if it was published prior to 1978 (the last extension).
To Quote Thomas Jefferson on ideas (Letter to Isaac McPherson, Monticello, August 13, 1813):
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
Yes, they gave out a "preview" in July, but the line I was questioning was:
Microsoft has already released Windows Whistler Professional and Advanced Server versions for IA-64.
In fact, searches on "Whistler Advanced Server" turns up nothing, and "Whistler Professional" turns up an article on winlogo future requirements, but neither search turns up anyting on itanium.
a search on:
itanium whistler advanced
gives some pages where they talk about itanium support, Whistler coming downstream, and Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Data Center Server.
I know in my town, the Town Moderator & Selectmen oversee the process. At the start of the voting, the Moderator has one each Democrat & Republican look in & confirm no ballots are in the box, then he locks it. At least two of the above are at the box at all times.
At the end of the voting, the box is opened in the presence of the Moderator, Selectmen, and representative of each of the parties. Then, these folks all sit down and each count the vote, until everyone (Moderator, Selectmen, and party reps) agree on the count.
Slashdot Mirror
The difference is that, with Open Source, the good guys can find AND FIX the holes. With closed source, you're dependant on the good will of the companies.
Have you tried Mission Critical Linux?
You mean like (blatent plug) Mission Critical Linux?
But what about authorized copying (like, because want to watch the movie backwards, or listen to the music on my car stereo system, or critique the work, all uses protected under "Fair Use")? The problem with all of these is that there is no way to differentiate "fair use" copying from "unauthorized copying" - because the difference really comes into play when you distribute the the copy, not when you make it.
I'm not against elimination of copyright abuse (what you and the MPAA/RIAA/BSA love to call "piracy"), but I also recognize that I, the holder of the item, have rights. All of these schemes basically say "we don't trust you, so we're taking your rights away, trust us that we won't abuse that fact by doing things like pay-per-view".
The real solution is to sue the copyright violators in court. Of course, that's a legal solution to the problem, and it requires action on the part of the copyright holder, and it prevents the copyright holder from gaining additional power, but that's not my problem.
Be aware, that under copyright, unless you license your code, default copyright says others can't redistribute (they can copy for personal use, and make changes for personal use). Also, by default, when you write code, it's copyrighted. Thus, without some kind of license (or explicitly making it public domain), no one can use your stuff in code they distribute. So, if you truly don't care, attach a disclaimer stating that you're PD'ing the code.
So don't use GPL'd software in your apps. He who rights the code chooses the license - you don't like that person's license, don't use their code.
Um, no, Vistasource is continueing to support Applixware, they've just decided to integrate it with their line of server-based office apps (anyware).
here's one story on it (see the response at the bottom and a the direct link story. Note that the major change is the the name - from Applixware to Anyware Office Client. I don't know, but this may be because the original company, Applix, still exists, but doesn't do the office suite, they spun that off to VistaSource.
Big pet peeve of mine: assuming YOU know how I want to see your site. You don't know my screen, my eyesite, anything. HTML was meant to be structural, presentation is defined by the browser. Especially when I do browsing with lynx, because I want information.
For all the Flash / Image users out there who don't have text on their pages, remember this: all the search engines only index text. If you insist on Flash, you just dropped all the potential customers who used a search engine.
You've managed to miss the entire point of those quotes. Look again. "Intellectual Property" is NOT PROPERTY under the US Constitution. It's a set of rights granted by the Constitution to authors & inventors for purposes of encouraging them to make their works public. According to the constitution, neither the inventor or the author have a "right" to anything, however, in the interest of encouraging the publication of their works, they are GRANTED a right.
US Constitution, Article 1, Section 8:
That's the sole justification in the Constitution for patent, copyright, and trademark.
From one of our founding fathers (Thomas Jefferson):
Also, violation of copyright is exactly that - violation of copyright. it is NOT theft.
> How can I sell open software without making it free
Short answer: by selling it. Oh, you want guaranteed profits. Nope, can't get that. See the Open Source definition at http://www.opensource.org/osd.html. Yes, you can charge, but you are limited because those downstream also have the right to do so, and can undercut you. If you don't give them this right, it's not Open Source. So, you charge for the packaging, support, etc. Note that the FSF sells tapes / CDs of FSF software. Key is you charge for services besides the continued selling of SW (support, custom modification, custom apps, etc).
Remember, fundamentally, if it can't be forked, it isn't open. Others have tried to get around this (Sun in particular), no one would play. If you want the benefits of Open Source, you have to accept the Open Source way.
For an example of a company that has created Free (libre) software, check out Digital Creations at
http://www.digicool.com/. Note that Cygnus Solutions made money on gcc / egcs (totally GPL'd) before being bought out by Red Hat.
Remember that there is basic level of support (e-mail, newsgroups) and more detailed / guaranteed levels of support (what companies expect).
1. Sell HW, support & professional services (Red Hat, Mission Critical Linux, VA Linux, IBM, Progeny, Stormix, Cygnus, etc). Yes, you can make a profit at this (Cygnus was profitable before they were bought by Red Hat, and all their products are GPL).
2. Dual-license (yes, you have to keep the sources separate, so they eventually drift apart, unless you require folks to assign copyright to you, and are good enough that they don't fork it).
If you want to sell proprietary software, the Open Source revolution will eliminate you. If, however, you look at where you can make money in the Open Source revolution, you may be rewarded (assuming your other business skills work).
Sure looks like they require X11 & Linux to me. BTW: What about the Alpha & SPARC I have at home? I note that it requires an Intel processor.
This looks like a closed, proprietary window manager. Maybe someday they'll port it to other systems, but note that up-front about "Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows systems" Hm. for an Operating system, it seems you need another OS in order to run (Linux, Mac, Windows). So, again, other than semantics, how is this an OS? I know the talk about "stand-alone" versions, sometime, maybe. Gee, right now, they don't even support 3D (something my GNOME box supports right now with OpenGL). BTW: Why do I want a GUI OS? What if I want to run it on my server & reflect back?
Oh, and I suggest reading the definition of Open Source. Key test: Can I fork the code? If not, whatever they release won't be Open Source (GPL or otherwise). Why should I depend on someone else to keep the system up to date? How do I know that if they currently support something, they will in the future? As someone else noted, look at the QT issues that finally resulted in TT GPL'ing QT. Why shouldn't Rocklyte expect a similar reaction to their proposal (in addition to all of the other ones)?
Sorry, nothing here that remotely interests me. Good luck, and I suspect Rocklyte will desparately need it.
Excuse me, a guy decides to kill seven people, and you blame the IRS? Yes, the guy was about to have his wages garnisheed. That's because he hadn't paid his taxes (something all USians with income above certain levels are required to do). Note that the IRS gave him a grace period till after the holidays, to try and minimize the stress.
So you're suggesting the IRS shouldn't come after anyone who doesn't pay their taxes, because they may commit murder? Right.
<sarcasm> Don't enforce the law, he might commit murder for you enforcing the law! What's next, not enforcing laws on bank robbery because the robber may kill people on getaway? Don't enforce speeding, someone may get pissed off and kill people!
</sarcasm>
And yes, it is different than police initiated high speed chases - the police(and the IRS) killed no one here, the McDermott did.
As Bruce Schneier (sp?) pointed out, at some point, the data is converted to clear, at which point it can be sniffed / copied. Once again, industry is trying to tackle a legal problem (rights to create new copies of data) with a technical solution (copy protection). The better solution is to tackle the legal problem - go after those who make illegal copies. Unfortunately:
a) that's hard, and costs money
b) it means recognizing there are legal copies
c) admitting they don't control the world.
Linux will NEVER support binary takeover of the kernel. Also, there is a legal DVD driver for Linux - part of the LiViD program, based on deCSS. Just because the DVDCCA says it's illegal doesn't make it so.
Folks in the US - WRITE your congrescritter (hard copy, not e-mail), let them know you oppose the takeovers via DMCA et al. Enough people feedback, they will start to listen.
Abiword and Gnumeric both use XML for their native format (especially if you're looking for an Excel-file format replacement - look at gnumeric). I don't know about the KOffice stuff, but I suspect it also uses XML.
Also be aware that XML is like SGML - it's a language for defining markups - the issue is the DTDs (Document Type Descriptions) that define the exact markup of a specific format.
And as a part of that, SGI has released their B2 code for Irix for Linux:
http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ob1/
Also, there's a Linux-privs project (at sourceforge, but sourceforge isn't responding right now), although the mailing list there has been quiet recently.
no.
> sorry, any window manager my grandmother has to first compile is not innately "user-friendly"
And that would be? I've got Blackbox, Sawfish, WindowMaker, fvwm, plus both the GNOME & KDE environments, none of them compiled by me. Every distro I know of comes with them.
Maybe you should check out one of the following:
Red Hat
Mandrake
SuSE
TurboLinux
Debian
Stormix
Progeny
any of about 200 others.
A quick search at IBM's Patent Site indicates 2 patents - one filed 1975/granted 1977, one filed 1994/granted 1998.
(Congress shall have the power)
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
Take a look at that:
"Congress shall have the power to": I.e. it's not a given. Congress could repeal all IP tomorrow, and legally, it would cease to exist in the US. As opposed to tangible property, protected by the 5th Amendment.
"promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts": The purpose is to improve science & the arts. All Science & Art build on the past, so in order for the next generation to build, the ideas / writings need to be in the public domain. Note that the goal is NOT directly to make the holders of IP rich (much less their heirs).
"by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries": Here's where the IP protection comes in - we'll ensure you make money in exchange for putting your ideas in the public domain, thus promoting the above goal. Note that little phrase "limited Times" - it's not meant to be forever. Originally it was up to 28 years (1 14 year term + 1 extension of 14 years) for Copyright. Now Copyright is Life + 70 years, and was retroactively extended under the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act to 95 years for anything still under copyright, even if it was published prior to 1978 (the last extension).
To Quote Thomas Jefferson on ideas (Letter to Isaac McPherson, Monticello, August 13, 1813):
In fact, searches on "Whistler Advanced Server" turns up nothing, and "Whistler Professional" turns up an article on winlogo future requirements, but neither search turns up anyting on itanium.
a search on:
itanium whistler advanced
gives some pages where they talk about itanium support, Whistler coming downstream, and Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Windows 2000 Data Center Server.
> Microsoft has already released Windows Whistler Professional and Advanced Server versions for IA-64.
Interesting that searches at www.microsoft.com don't show any signs of this. All I could find were some beta stuff around driver kits and Visual C++.
Of course, www.ia64linux.org has all the linux stuff, right out there in the open.
> But lefties are sinister
;-)
But in their right minds
I know in my town, the Town Moderator & Selectmen oversee the process. At the start of the voting, the Moderator has one each Democrat & Republican look in & confirm no ballots are in the box, then he locks it. At least two of the above are at the box at all times.
At the end of the voting, the box is opened in the presence of the Moderator, Selectmen, and representative of each of the parties. Then, these folks all sit down and each count the vote, until everyone (Moderator, Selectmen, and party reps) agree on the count.