Even if everyone, or enough people did, to be significant. The police, would simply enforce the law, catching and releasing.
Why would anyone think that law enforcement would simply capitulate under these circumstances is beyond me.. With all those fines, that's money in their pocket for new cruisers and more officers, books for school kids, traffic lights, etc If anything, I would expect a harsher heavier handed response from law enforcment.
The same premise exists here.. People protesting en mass isn't going to discourage law enforcement from doing their job. The system will take what it can handle, and keep coming back for more offenders until there are none left.
The only thing this form of "protest" accomplishes is it puts YOUR money in the hands of the gov't & lawyers.
The real solution is education. Once the issue becomes political, and enough voters are getting invovled (read - informed), then and ONLY then will your Congressmen take notice. They're the biggest fairweather friends around.
Hooray! Next stop, a government regulated internet! That cant possibly have any other effects beyond removal of unwanted e-mails.
Huh? Should Business transactions on the internet not be regulated?
deceptive subject lines? Don't try and tell me there isn't room for lawyers to abuse that
So? If the law makes them use their real source address, they can be blocked just as easily as you throw out the junk mail that arrives you in snail-mail box. Don't tell me that half the flyers you get there aren't "deceptive" in one form or another... Albeit, not like receiving porn in an envelope that looks like your bank statemenet..
This isn't an anti-spam law, per se, it sounds more like an anti-anonymous-email law. How long until some lawyer tries to morph 'valid return address' into 'using your real name'?
Hmm... How do you define anonymous email? Is it your nameless@yahoo.com account? Or is it just plain feeding an email server bogus information?
As far as valid return address, I read that as a verifiable return domain that marks the return to sender source. Aside tho, isn't that the beauty of the system? Laws are typically not black and white, but defined by the boundaries and case studies of lawyers and judges past.(I'm not saying the system isn't in a Quagmire of frivilous cases either).
My point is, the law may not be perfect, but it's a start in the right direction. (However, without technically informed people on the bench making the decisions, I fear it's all for not. )
I work in a situation in which we are quite understaffed, and without an "operations staff", I'll typically log close to 270-280 hrs/month.
Typically, after "long" sessions, My boss allows me to work from home, or take a recovery day without a vaction penalty. Not only for my own personal recovery, but to ensure I'm not killing anyone on the road during the 40 min trek to/from work.
The long hours also afford me some additional flexibility in my schedule other IT personell don't typically have. (If I'm up until 2am working, no one better bitch if I come in at 9:30-10).
Personally, I've also accepted long hours as part of the job, part of the personna (sp?) you undertake when you become a programmer. However, if I wasn't being appropriately compensated for my time, things would probably be different.
All this being said, you'll right better code if you're in the right state of mind. I find that errors become harder to find, and easier to make during these long sessions. Of course, your mileage may vary.
I found myself feeling rather let down, this game is after all.. how many years LATE?
It makes you wonder what they were doing all this time.
One of the Blizzard hallmarks, IMHO, had always been their ingame cinematic sequences. They really skimpped out here, You can recognize almost all of their sequences from the trailers they've been leaking over the years. So I ask again.. what were they doing all this time?
It strikes me as very "thrown together". Then this whole "Gone Gold", then wait deal (then patch??). It makes me wonder if someone's bonus rode on the First Half 2002 release date.
My opinion only, but it seems to me very much like the Jedi Knight II release.. Put a game out there with a lame storyline, then leave it in the hands of the mod-makers to make your product successful.
Agreed. Having been in very much the same place myself, I can completely understand how that old "insert shameful 80s title" ends up going with others for rent. (or beer money!)
Let's look at this from another perspective.. Who are they trying to penny pinch here? The people who can afford it the least, students. Vaguely reminiscent of something out of the British Telecom playbook isn't it? Who has the least cash that we can put the screws to the most?
This doesn't stop here.. they get their way here, how does this apply to used games? How about used books? Used Movies? IMHO, all their actions seem to be actually encouraging more piracy, than curbing any of it.
This doesn't make sense, putting a limit on downloaded Bandwidth only hurts potential eCommerce sites.(IMHO, anyway)
Curious, does the amount of Bandwidth you're charged for include all the ads downloaded to your browser too?
How about blown downloads.. do you pay for it when the server on the other side dies? or cuts you off in the middle of that Valhalla upgrade?
Wanna Cut down on Piracy? Scale the cost of your service against UPSTREAM. Joe Mom and Pop will never need that HUGE upstream pipe, but junior will never be able to share his MP3s with a capped upstream.
Personally, I'd have no problem paying a lil' extra for a bigger upstream pipe.
No, this doesn't solve the issue of piracy, it simply narrows down the universe a bit.
It's a win win for the Cable Companies.. It tosses a bone to the [RI/MP]AA and it stuffs cash in their pocket at the same time.
Why isn't this being persued as a solution?
Start Capping on how much people can download, and you lose the reason for people buying broadband in the first place... It's like having digital cable, but only being allowed to watch 20 hrs a week. (and 25% of THAT consists of Commericials!!)
You make some good points, (I couldn't agree more about dual-use tools).
But it still leaves the question.. how do you target the infringers.. and who is the infringer to begin with? Is it the person who last paid in some traceable form for the CD? Wouldn't you need proof that they ripped the CD to begin with?Without that, someone could easily say.. "That CD? I lost it ages ago..".
LOL, Next thing you know, you'll have more regulations on posessing a CD, than you do a handgun!
You're right, It all really doesn't add up, does it?
I don't see how this will work in the real world...
Suppose you buy a CD as a gift for someone? Or you recycle a CD at a music store? It's certainly no newsflash that many places pay for and sell used CDs. (How I got most of my Zappa collection actually).
Who will be resposnsible then? The original owner? The person who bought the gift? Would the radio station who gives away 100 copies of a new release at a CD party be then held liable for any copies found?
They'd just love to be able to track you by transaction wouldn't they?
Adding a water mark, or tracking your purchases by transaction most certainly DO NOT prove you were the actual person who uploaded/ripped the copy in question.
IMHO, I think their ultimate goal here is to give them an avenue to go after the casual copier. Hey, wouldn't that be great press? "60 yr old grandfather BUSTED for making copies of Glenn Miller's Greatest Hits".
My apologies! I often associate POP3 and SMTP in the same baseket.
I have only been able to connect to my ISPs POP services through Yahoo.. I didn't see an option to use my ISPs SMTP services.
I stand corrected on this point!
Consider..
When I log my hours, I log not only time spent, but on what I was working on..(obvious enough)
Mgmnts justification is that expenses that are related to Capitalizable projects are taxed at a different rate.
With that in mind.. isn't your work taxed? I guess it does raise some intresting questions for the open source community..Like.. could hours donated to an open source project count as
a deduction? Why not?
Point taken. I guess what I was trying to say was the better, stronger product always comes out on top, Apache's dominance is a great example of that.
Perhaps netscape's mistake was they didn't go open source.;)
Sorry, I don't follow the word perfect reference.. Word Perfect just sort of disappeared one day didn't it?
Funny... You don't see this happening with Apache/IIS.
By your logic, Apache should be a thing of the past now. Instead, you have MORE servers running Apache. Doesn't IIS come with about everything now a days? (Bundled vs. giving away, sure, but isn't that splitting hairs?)
It's amazing how this is Microsoft's fault for giving something away, and not the fault of say, the business plan netscape was built upon, or the overpaid executives running the show.
I'm not saying MS didn't have a hand in pushing netflake over the cliff.. (Actually, didn't MS try to buy Netscape before AOL/TW? Anyone?)..I'm simply pointing out, there's more than one reason for the company's demise.
Let's play out the scene different for a moment.. It's 1996, and you have a choice, a 30$ copy of Netscape, and a $30 copy of IE. Which are you going to go with? Most people are probably just going to go with that Windows Name brand, and stick with what they know. (Remember when you didn't have a "PC", you had an "IBM"?)
Perhaps AOL/TW should dump a few more bucks into Netscape, and a bit less into the coffers of their attorneys.
Nice!
It's good to see that someone is willing to take action!
Bad form on the part of the ISP, not even giving you a chance to correct the situation.. you'd think their TOS would be slightly more lenient towards business customers running an ISP.
Curious, what was the response from the end-user? Where the perps. adults?
Huh... But what did you do about the clients running fragmented DoS attacks, and using ping flood tools on YOUR network? Don't you have a terms and coditions of service?
Mod me down for this, or forgive me if I'm missing something here, but it seems like you passed the problem on to someone else instead of dealing with the source offenders yourself.
Let them cheat all they want, it won't help anyone a penny when it comes to Exam time.
If you can ace your homework, but fail your final.. and still actually TAKE the Exam.. that should be factored into your grade.
I'm not sure I've ever taken a class where one could outright FAIL the Exams and still pass the course.
My question, and point, is, doesn't the GPL cover this? Isn't the software considered "As Is"?
In addition.. does anyone know if this covers pre-compiled binaries? Or just the open code?
McSoftware has sure received their share of blackeyes lately.. Who was responsible for their security auditing during testing? Arthuer Anderson? (If they tested, I'm sure they destroyed any results they received!)
Slashdot Mirror
The Proposed bill would allow users to make backup copies for personal use, etc.. However, does that backup involve retaining the "native" format?
So, you would be within your rights if you backup a CD and retain it as such; but would you be outside of your rights to "backup" as an mp3 or ogg?
Even if everyone, or enough people did, to be significant. The police, would simply enforce the law, catching and releasing.
Why would anyone think that law enforcement would simply capitulate under these circumstances is beyond me.. With all those fines, that's money in their pocket for new cruisers and more officers, books for school kids, traffic lights, etc If anything, I would expect a harsher heavier handed response from law enforcment.
The same premise exists here.. People protesting en mass isn't going to discourage law enforcement from doing their job. The system will take what it can handle, and keep coming back for more offenders until there are none left.
The only thing this form of "protest" accomplishes is it puts YOUR money in the hands of the gov't & lawyers.
The real solution is education. Once the issue becomes political, and enough voters are getting invovled (read - informed), then and ONLY then will your Congressmen take notice. They're the biggest fairweather friends around.
Hooray! Next stop, a government regulated internet! That cant possibly have any other effects beyond removal of unwanted e-mails.
Huh? Should Business transactions on the internet not be regulated?
deceptive subject lines? Don't try and tell me there isn't room for lawyers to abuse that
So? If the law makes them use their real source address, they can be blocked just as easily as you throw out the junk mail that arrives you in snail-mail box. Don't tell me that half the flyers you get there aren't "deceptive" in one form or another... Albeit, not like receiving porn in an envelope that looks like your bank statemenet..
This isn't an anti-spam law, per se, it sounds more like an anti-anonymous-email law. How long until some lawyer tries to morph 'valid return address' into 'using your real name'?
Hmm... How do you define anonymous email? Is it your nameless@yahoo.com account? Or is it just plain feeding an email server bogus information? As far as valid return address, I read that as a verifiable return domain that marks the return to sender source. Aside tho, isn't that the beauty of the system? Laws are typically not black and white, but defined by the boundaries and case studies of lawyers and judges past.(I'm not saying the system isn't in a Quagmire of frivilous cases either).
My point is, the law may not be perfect, but it's a start in the right direction. (However, without technically informed people on the bench making the decisions, I fear it's all for not. )
I work in a situation in which we are quite understaffed, and without an "operations staff", I'll typically log close to 270-280 hrs/month.
Typically, after "long" sessions, My boss allows me to work from home, or take a recovery day without a vaction penalty. Not only for my own personal recovery, but to ensure I'm not killing anyone on the road during the 40 min trek to/from work.
The long hours also afford me some additional flexibility in my schedule other IT personell don't typically have. (If I'm up until 2am working, no one better bitch if I come in at 9:30-10).
Personally, I've also accepted long hours as part of the job, part of the personna (sp?) you undertake when you become a programmer. However, if I wasn't being appropriately compensated for my time, things would probably be different.
All this being said, you'll right better code if you're in the right state of mind. I find that errors become harder to find, and easier to make during these long sessions. Of course, your mileage may vary.
.. And what of the millions of little meterorites you're bound to create with just an explosion?
I can just picture the llama/pinto sized chunks of solid iron raining down now.
I couldn't agree more..
I found myself feeling rather let down, this game is after all.. how many years LATE?
It makes you wonder what they were doing all this time.
One of the Blizzard hallmarks, IMHO, had always been their ingame cinematic sequences. They really skimpped out here, You can recognize almost all of their sequences from the trailers they've been leaking over the years. So I ask again.. what were they doing all this time?
It strikes me as very "thrown together". Then this whole "Gone Gold", then wait deal (then patch??). It makes me wonder if someone's bonus rode on the First Half 2002 release date.
My opinion only, but it seems to me very much like the Jedi Knight II release.. Put a game out there with a lame storyline, then leave it in the hands of the mod-makers to make your product successful.
I dont think so..
You license software, not hardware...
Agreed. Having been in very much the same place myself, I can completely understand how that old "insert shameful 80s title" ends up going with others for rent. (or beer money!)
Let's look at this from another perspective.. Who are they trying to penny pinch here? The people who can afford it the least, students. Vaguely reminiscent of something out of the British Telecom playbook isn't it? Who has the least cash that we can put the screws to the most?
This doesn't stop here.. they get their way here, how does this apply to used games? How about used books? Used Movies? IMHO, all their actions seem to be actually encouraging more piracy, than curbing any of it.
This doesn't make sense, putting a limit on downloaded Bandwidth only hurts potential eCommerce sites.(IMHO, anyway)
Curious, does the amount of Bandwidth you're charged for include all the ads downloaded to your browser too?
How about blown downloads.. do you pay for it when the server on the other side dies? or cuts you off in the middle of that Valhalla upgrade?
Wanna Cut down on Piracy? Scale the cost of your service against UPSTREAM. Joe Mom and Pop will never need that HUGE upstream pipe, but junior will never be able to share his MP3s with a capped upstream.
Personally, I'd have no problem paying a lil' extra for a bigger upstream pipe.
No, this doesn't solve the issue of piracy, it simply narrows down the universe a bit.
It's a win win for the Cable Companies.. It tosses a bone to the [RI/MP]AA and it stuffs cash in their pocket at the same time.
Why isn't this being persued as a solution?
Start Capping on how much people can download, and you lose the reason for people buying broadband in the first place... It's like having digital cable, but only being allowed to watch 20 hrs a week. (and 25% of THAT consists of Commericials!!)
All, of course, IMHO.
You make some good points, (I couldn't agree more about dual-use tools).
But it still leaves the question.. how do you target the infringers.. and who is the infringer to begin with? Is it the person who last paid in some traceable form for the CD? Wouldn't you need proof that they ripped the CD to begin with?Without that, someone could easily say.. "That CD? I lost it ages ago..".
LOL, Next thing you know, you'll have more regulations on posessing a CD, than you do a handgun!
You're right, It all really doesn't add up, does it?
I don't see how this will work in the real world...
Suppose you buy a CD as a gift for someone? Or you recycle a CD at a music store? It's certainly no newsflash that many places pay for and sell used CDs. (How I got most of my Zappa collection actually).
Who will be resposnsible then? The original owner? The person who bought the gift? Would the radio station who gives away 100 copies of a new release at a CD party be then held liable for any copies found?
They'd just love to be able to track you by transaction wouldn't they?
Adding a water mark, or tracking your purchases by transaction most certainly DO NOT prove you were the actual person who uploaded/ripped the copy in question.
IMHO, I think their ultimate goal here is to give them an avenue to go after the casual copier. Hey, wouldn't that be great press? "60 yr old grandfather BUSTED for making copies of Glenn Miller's Greatest Hits".
My apologies! I often associate POP3 and SMTP in the same baseket. I have only been able to connect to my ISPs POP services through Yahoo.. I didn't see an option to use my ISPs SMTP services. I stand corrected on this point!
Yahoo is only charging for use of their POP service, you can still use their webmail services to connect to your ISPs SMTP and POP services for free.
I'm not entirely sure, but I believe I've read that their rational was to cut down on @Yahoo.com spam.
Yahoo's only trying to keep up with the changing times. I think they've been "fair" so far in deciding what to charge for and what not to.
People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
thats what the title should be.. ugh.. mod -1 for shitty typing.
Isn't it?
Consider..
When I log my hours, I log not only time spent, but on what I was working on..(obvious enough)
Mgmnts justification is that expenses that are related to Capitalizable projects are taxed at a different rate.
With that in mind.. isn't your work taxed? I guess it does raise some intresting questions for the open source community..Like.. could hours donated to an open source project count as a deduction? Why not?
.. for what it's worth.. Intresting, after all these years. http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&selm=3220e7e 0.4271568%40news.blarg.net
Point taken. I guess what I was trying to say was the better, stronger product always comes out on top, Apache's dominance is a great example of that. ;)
Perhaps netscape's mistake was they didn't go open source.
Sorry, I don't follow the word perfect reference.. Word Perfect just sort of disappeared one day didn't it?
Wow, so what you're saying is only a Microsoft team had access to the MICROSOFT API? I'm speechless.
Microsoft also denied API access to Netscape.
What's your point? I believe MS was denying everyone access to the API..Why should netscape be any different?
Funny... You don't see this happening with Apache/IIS.
By your logic, Apache should be a thing of the past now. Instead, you have MORE servers running Apache. Doesn't IIS come with about everything now a days? (Bundled vs. giving away, sure, but isn't that splitting hairs?)
It's amazing how this is Microsoft's fault for giving something away, and not the fault of say, the business plan netscape was built upon, or the overpaid executives running the show.
I'm not saying MS didn't have a hand in pushing netflake over the cliff.. (Actually, didn't MS try to buy Netscape before AOL/TW? Anyone?)..I'm simply pointing out, there's more than one reason for the company's demise.
Let's play out the scene different for a moment.. It's 1996, and you have a choice, a 30$ copy of Netscape, and a $30 copy of IE. Which are you going to go with? Most people are probably just going to go with that Windows Name brand, and stick with what they know. (Remember when you didn't have a "PC", you had an "IBM"?)
Perhaps AOL/TW should dump a few more bucks into Netscape, and a bit less into the coffers of their attorneys.
Nice!
It's good to see that someone is willing to take action!
Bad form on the part of the ISP, not even giving you a chance to correct the situation.. you'd think their TOS would be slightly more lenient towards business customers running an ISP.
Curious, what was the response from the end-user? Where the perps. adults?
Huh... But what did you do about the clients running fragmented DoS attacks, and using ping flood tools on YOUR network? Don't you have a terms and coditions of service?
Mod me down for this, or forgive me if I'm missing something here, but it seems like you passed the problem on to someone else instead of dealing with the source offenders yourself.
Let them cheat all they want, it won't help anyone a penny when it comes to Exam time. If you can ace your homework, but fail your final.. and still actually TAKE the Exam .. that should be factored into your grade.
I'm not sure I've ever taken a class where one could outright FAIL the Exams and still pass the course.
Indeed this is true... Scarey, but true.
My question, and point, is, doesn't the GPL cover this? Isn't the software considered "As Is"?
In addition.. does anyone know if this covers pre-compiled binaries? Or just the open code?
McSoftware has sure received their share of blackeyes lately.. Who was responsible for their security auditing during testing? Arthuer Anderson? (If they tested, I'm sure they destroyed any results they received!)