Same thing. Microsoft isn't under any obligation to rank sites as their owners wish, either.
If page rankings end up depending on how litigious the businesses they belong to are, then we can forget about having such a thing as a useful search engine altogether.
Google owes Kinderstart *nothing*, other than a good authoritative search result, because thats what they've promised to deliver.
Google owes Kinderstart precisely what's spelled out in any contracts they've entered into. If Kinderstart isn't a customer of Google's, then they can go pound sand.
As a lawyer, I have a different take on this suit. It's not "bullshit" at all.
No, counselor: it is bullshit. Your analogy of Ma Bell is irrelevant, since Bell was a government-created monopoly. Your analogy to insurance companies is even more of a stretch, since states require drivers to carry insurance. Google's not the only search engine, it just happens to be the leader in the field because most people who use it think it works better than the others.
The point is that if you are one of a few major players profiting from a business that has become essential to the public, we'll let you enjoy your quasi-monopoly, but you'd better be available equally and evenhandedly to all.
Because of the intrinsically political nature of taxpayer funding. The current administration only has the power to halt stem-cell research (for example), because it's government money.
The near destruction of that need is a side effect of MS finally learning that security is part of the development process.
So, that means that the anti-malware companies have what, fifty, sixty years, at the most to stay in business?
We've heard Microsoft do the "this time, for sure!" routine on security ever since I can remember. Why would anyone expect them to have their shit together this time?
America accounts for 25% of all the world's energy consumption.
That energy is not all consumed by Americans. Much of it is used in manufacturing products and raising food which is in turn exported all over the world.
Well, water vapor is far and away the most significant greenhouse gas, but there's no obvious way to make it precipitate any faster than it does, unless you want to try orbiting a vast sunshade to reduce the amount of light striking the atmosphere. Occluding an area the size of Texas should do the trick.
I'm with you on that, but I don't see how they could be abolished without removing the rights of free speech, and free association from the people. Parties were something the framers of the constitution didn't really think through. Their intention was that we should actually know what our candidates stood for individually, and vote according to our convictions. I'm sure they'd have been appalled at the spectacle of party bosses bullying members of congress to vote against their conscience to toe the party line.
Just a bit of advice here, sparky: a big part of why people are leaving the democrat faction of the Ruling Party in droves, is precisely the kind of asine vitriol you display here. I saw plenty of cheap shots at Clinton, but they were expressions of disgust rather than calls for murder.
I agree in the sense that a President can't rescue a hosed economy single handedly. He can only contribute to general confidence and try to avoid spending like a drunken sailor.
This is a myth. Appropriations come from the congress. The white house submits a budget proposal, but the congress is under no compulsion to follow it. It absolutely drives me up a wall whenever I hear a congresscritter bitching about spending, when they voted for the budget!
Apple refuses to license the FairPlay DRM to anyone else
You're mistaken. Apple has licensed their DRM system to Motorola. They haven't licensed it to Real, because Real had NOTHING to offer, and Microsoft hasn't asked for it.
it is Apple that bars access outside your country.
To be precise, Apple complies with the contracts it has with the music companies. Believe me, they'd far rather have just one iTMS and let anyone in the world use it.
2 term President and an administration that presided over a booming economy
Thanks to the deadlock between congress and the president, which put some brakes on tax increases for a while, yes. In any case, crediting government for the economy is like giving a flea credit for the dog.
I have always wondered what those guys suing for anything _really_ think ?
The dude is an attention whore, and he's just gotten a whole lot of attention. He *may* possibly be enough of a loon to think he was going to collect ten billion dollars from Google, but that's pretty far out there, even for an unmedicated bipolar disorder sufferer.
I've got a much simpler idea: If you don't want something to get freely archived and redistributed by countless 3rd parties outside your control, why don't you just try not posting it on Usenet?
Many people have suggested exactly that to Gordon Parker, and he continues to post in newsgroups where every other participant is quite sick of him. Of course, were he to do so, he wouldn't have anything to file BS lawsuits over.
Funny you should mention that, since he has stated on several occasions that he has bipolar disorder (what used to be known as manic depression.) Really, the next person he sues should petition the court to have him committed, and get him some competent profesisonal help.
Gordon Roy Parker, to whom I usually refer as "grp" (rhymes with twerp), having nothing better to do, likes to waste the taxpayers' money on frivolous lawsuits like this one where he demanded ten billion(!) dollars from Google and fifty thousand(!) John Does for having archived a newsgroup. One of his other hilarious escapades was suing U. Penn for discrimination against him because he's a white male(!), when he didn't even apply for a job there!
He's up for a lifetime "Balsa Gavel" award in alt.usenet.kooks.
We might also want to add that there's something so typically shortsighted and doctrinaire about a libertarian who says ``computers do not create opportunities."
WTF are you talking about? I'm a Libertarian, and so are a hell of a lot of the engineers I know. Who are you purportedly quoting?
Slashdot Mirror
Replace Google with Microsoft.
Same thing. Microsoft isn't under any obligation to rank sites as their owners wish, either.
If page rankings end up depending on how litigious the businesses they belong to are, then we can forget about having such a thing as a useful search engine altogether.
Google owes Kinderstart *nothing*, other than a good authoritative search result, because thats what they've promised to deliver.
Google owes Kinderstart precisely what's spelled out in any contracts they've entered into. If Kinderstart isn't a customer of Google's, then they can go pound sand.
-jcr
As a lawyer, I have a different take on this suit. It's not "bullshit" at all.
No, counselor: it is bullshit. Your analogy of Ma Bell is irrelevant, since Bell was a government-created monopoly. Your analogy to insurance companies is even more of a stretch, since states require drivers to carry insurance. Google's not the only search engine, it just happens to be the leader in the field because most people who use it think it works better than the others.
The point is that if you are one of a few major players profiting from a business that has become essential to the public, we'll let you enjoy your quasi-monopoly, but you'd better be available equally and evenhandedly to all.
LET you? Go to hell!
-jcr
Why not?
Because of the intrinsically political nature of taxpayer funding. The current administration only has the power to halt stem-cell research (for example), because it's government money.
-jcr
I see it as far more problematic that we now expect the taxpayer to be the main source of funding for basic research.
-jcr
The near destruction of that need is a side effect of MS finally learning that security is part of the development process.
So, that means that the anti-malware companies have what, fifty, sixty years, at the most to stay in business?
We've heard Microsoft do the "this time, for sure!" routine on security ever since I can remember. Why would anyone expect them to have their shit together this time?
-jcr
Well, maybe we shouldn't be covering the skys with vapor trails from jets.
They should have modded you funny, but in case you were serious...
Jets aren't adding any significant amount of water to the atmosphere, and at any rate, cirrus clouds reduce the solar heat gain.
-jcr
America accounts for 25% of all the world's energy consumption.
That energy is not all consumed by Americans. Much of it is used in manufacturing products and raising food which is in turn exported all over the world.
-jcr
Well, water vapor is far and away the most significant greenhouse gas, but there's no obvious way to make it precipitate any faster than it does, unless you want to try orbiting a vast sunshade to reduce the amount of light striking the atmosphere. Occluding an area the size of Texas should do the trick.
-jcr
I don't want any parties!
I'm with you on that, but I don't see how they could be abolished without removing the rights of free speech, and free association from the people. Parties were something the framers of the constitution didn't really think through. Their intention was that we should actually know what our candidates stood for individually, and vote according to our convictions. I'm sure they'd have been appalled at the spectacle of party bosses bullying members of congress to vote against their conscience to toe the party line.
-jcr
Murder a Republican.
Just a bit of advice here, sparky: a big part of why people are leaving the democrat faction of the Ruling Party in droves, is precisely the kind of asine vitriol you display here. I saw plenty of cheap shots at Clinton, but they were expressions of disgust rather than calls for murder.
-jcr
I agree in the sense that a President can't rescue a hosed economy single handedly. He can only contribute to general confidence and try to avoid spending like a drunken sailor.
This is a myth. Appropriations come from the congress. The white house submits a budget proposal, but the congress is under no compulsion to follow it. It absolutely drives me up a wall whenever I hear a congresscritter bitching about spending, when they voted for the budget!
-jcr
Paul's right, Parker is quite depraved.
-jcr
What a vivid imagination you have.
-jcr
Apple refuses to license the FairPlay DRM to anyone else
You're mistaken. Apple has licensed their DRM system to Motorola. They haven't licensed it to Real, because Real had NOTHING to offer, and Microsoft hasn't asked for it.
-jcr
it is Apple that bars access outside your country.
To be precise, Apple complies with the contracts it has with the music companies. Believe me, they'd far rather have just one iTMS and let anyone in the world use it.
-jcr
Pulling out of the French market could cost Apple two, maybe two and a half percent of their iTMS revenues.
-jcr
2 term President and an administration that presided over a booming economy
Thanks to the deadlock between congress and the president, which put some brakes on tax increases for a while, yes. In any case, crediting government for the economy is like giving a flea credit for the dog.
-jcr
I have always wondered what those guys suing for anything _really_ think ?
The dude is an attention whore, and he's just gotten a whole lot of attention. He *may* possibly be enough of a loon to think he was going to collect ten billion dollars from Google, but that's pretty far out there, even for an unmedicated bipolar disorder sufferer.
-jcr
"Snotgrass Publishing" isn't a "they", it's a "he". It's Gordon's name for the business he pretends to have.
-jcr
I've got a much simpler idea: If you don't want something to get freely archived and redistributed by countless 3rd parties outside your control, why don't you just try not posting it on Usenet?
Many people have suggested exactly that to Gordon Parker, and he continues to post in newsgroups where every other participant is quite sick of him. Of course, were he to do so, he wouldn't have anything to file BS lawsuits over.
-jcr
The guy sounds like a nut job.
Funny you should mention that, since he has stated on several occasions that he has bipolar disorder (what used to be known as manic depression.) Really, the next person he sues should petition the court to have him committed, and get him some competent profesisonal help.
-jcr
To me, his suit smells like a cash grab.
Got it on the very first guess!
Gordon Roy Parker, to whom I usually refer as "grp" (rhymes with twerp), having nothing better to do, likes to waste the taxpayers' money on frivolous lawsuits like this one where he demanded ten billion(!) dollars from Google and fifty thousand(!) John Does for having archived a newsgroup. One of his other hilarious escapades was suing U. Penn for discrimination against him because he's a white male(!), when he didn't even apply for a job there!
He's up for a lifetime "Balsa Gavel" award in alt.usenet.kooks.
-jcr
You do realize Clinton was tried and acquitted of perjury and obstruction, don't you?
I know that he got off the hook on a party-line vote, yes. That doesn't mean he was innocent.
-jcr
Gore ran AWAY from Clinton and many people, including me, think this was a mistake.
That's what we call Damage Control. The damage was done months before the campaign started.
Of all the things to blame for Gore's loss, Clinton cannot be one of them, imo.
Oh, get serious.
-jcr
We might also want to add that there's something so typically shortsighted and doctrinaire about a libertarian who says ``computers do not create opportunities."
WTF are you talking about? I'm a Libertarian, and so are a hell of a lot of the engineers I know. Who are you purportedly quoting?
-jcr