It's even worse than that. Some of those institutions you describe actually have photocopiers available on the premises!!! You don't even need to take your camera! How they get away with that is beyond me. I've heard rumors there are even some in this country! Where's John Ashcroft when you need him?
By definition a catalyst is not consumed in the reaction, and so theoretically, it should not be necessary to replace it for a very long time.
As far as I understood, the whole advantage of fuel cell based laptops was you could simply open a spout and pour more fuel into it, like a camp stove. If, instead, you must buy proprietary cartridges like printers, I don't see why people would opt for a fuel cell based computer rather than a conventional rechargeable battery. In fact, the proprietary scheme you described above would be rather more like a laptop which runs on non-rechargeable batteries! I can't imagine anyone buying such a thing.
Wrong. US copyright law says is only illegal for the sender. There is absolutely no law against receiving copyrighted information.
That used to be the case, but hasn't been since 1996, I believe, when Clinton signed the No Electronic Theft Act. That criminalizes downloading if you download more than, I believe $1000 worth of stuff within a 6 month period. I could be wrong on details, but I think that's the gist of it.
Under normal circumstances yes. But if J K Rowling or her publishers sold you a PC that inadvertantly had a copy of the book on its hard drive then no, you would have no right to read it. This is a much closer analogy than just buying an ordinary book.
If a random person sells me a computer with a pirated copy of the book on it, then I would probably not have a legal right to keep that copy. But if J.K. Rowling herself sells me such a computer accidently (and she is the copyright holder) then I don't see why I would be required to delete it. I haven't copied it; she has, and she's the copyrighrt holder. Can you cite any statutes or precedents to back up your assertion?
But if SCO sold them Linux, I don't see how they could sue anyway. Isn't selling someone something which implements your IP an implicit grant of permission to use it? If I buy the new Harry Potter book, for instance, can't I assume I have a license to read it?
Did I count those zeroes right? 2.3 billion files exchanged each month?
Keep in mind, a "billion" doesn't mean the same thing everywhere. In America 1 billion = 10^9, whereas in Europe 1 billion = 10^12. Not sure if you're American or not, but if you are European I can understand why you'd be surprised at that number!
For 99% of the work a non-professional would need to do, it is just as good as Photoshop. If you're a professional and you need those extra features, then you can afford Photoshop.
I don't know how you categorize 'professionals'. Someone who does image editing for a living, I agree, can in most cases afford Photoshop.
But there are many who do occasional editing and Photoshop is just too pricey. Gimp is fine if you're working on images for the web, but as has been said many, many times before, Gimp is useless for prepress work. (And it's not just professionals who do prepress work anymore.) Lack of good CMYK support, and color profiles for various input and output devices makes it completely unsuitable.
I'm not complaining about Gimp. For free software, it's great. Many people have put a lot of hard work into it, and provided a program which many people find very useful free of charge. But I do get irritated when people keep saying it does almost as much as Photoshop. It could, and I hope someday it does, but it isn't there yet.
An e-tailer selling electronic goods is *doing* buiness in the country where the item is sold, not where the sale is.
I disagree. The vendor is doing business where the vendor is located, and the purchaser is doing business where they buy the goods. In fact, in the U.S., states are forbidden from forcing out of state businesses to collect tax on sales made to individuals in the state unless they have a business presence in that state. In many states, the purchaser is required to declare the items and pay a "use tax" on their state income tax returns, but people rarely do that.
So, this may be a fundamental difference between US law and European law. If European law regards that both parties are doing business at the purchasers location, and US law says otherwise, there is a conflict.
An EU customer won't be able to break the law because the VAT is collected by the US company.
Yes, I do understand that. I was trying to be a bit funny. But the point I was really trying to make was: who is going to make the U.S. companies collect the tax? Without an act of congress authorizing US officials to enforce this rule, how is it going to work?
For USA companies: They will have to collect VAT tax from the UE citizens and forward it to the EU.
For EU individuals: They will have to pay the taxes because the law will be enforced at the point of origin.
"The law will be enforced at the point of origin"??? If I'm reading your post correctly, you are saying there will be an EU police force sent to America to ensure that American companies are collecting this tax?
In reality this is not "selfish" of the EU, just MAKING THE LAW APPLY TO EVERYBODY.
So, it's your contention that the EU should be allowed to make its laws apply to the whole world (not just the EU)? Should all nations have that right?
Why the parent is modded insightfull is beyond me.
Why you're not modded as Flamebait is beyond me.
As for collecting VAT for all state, well this is the price for making buisness with those country.
An e-tailer selling electronic goods is not doing business with "those countries" but rather with an individual making a credit card purchase. Why should an e-tailer have the responsibility of verifying the physical location of its customers? Is that even possible with web anonymizer and proxy services available worldwide?
Do not like it ? Go away from those country.
Since when does an e-tailer need to be in a country to do business with a person in that country? If your country doesn't like it, get off the Internet.
The article didn't mention this, but from reading previous articles on this story, I seem to recall that the student was not only accused of contributory infringement, but direct infringement as well, for sharing several hundred megabytes of copyrighted music from his own computer.
No doubt the RIAA singled him (as well as three others) out because he ran the search engine, but I think the stronger legal threat came from the direct infringement charges. So, settling probably was the best option. People always say we should blame the pirates, not the technology providers, but he was doing both.
And in the same sense, if the kid is out with $50 to spend on these types of things instead of doing homework, participating in sports, or spending time with their parents, then it's not just the shopkeeper, but also the parents that need to be looked at.
So you're saying that kids shouldn't be allowed any free time at all?!? Parents and teachers must keep them swamped with homework, sports activities, and time with parents that they can't have any life of their own? I agree that the above-mentioned activities are good for kids, but they need a life, too.
Okay. Here's what I'd do. I'd buy and old gas-guzzler with a huge gas tank, whose sole purpose would be to drive back and forth to the local gas station. I'd fillerup, pay very little tax, drive home, and use a siphon to tranfer the gas to the cars I actually drive.
A computer can only simulate worlds which are less complex than the world in which the computer exists
Not necessarily. Remember, the computer is only simulating the complex world, it doesn't have to implement it. Only things which we look at and focus our attention on need to be simulated. The far side of the moon need not be simulated, for example. It is possible, even in today's virtual reality type video games to create the illusion of worlds much more complex than the program really deals with. You assume there is detail beneath the surface which really isn't there, because it's easier for your mind to comprehend it that way than to think of it as an elaborate simulation.
I understand the point about companies using things like this to further justify the DMCA, but in truth it works the other way, just as easily. The more companies abuse the act, the more likely it is to be overturnded.
But I don't think that most people will see it as an abuse of the DMCA for a digital satellite company to fight piracy. Satellite pirates really aren't the people you want to hold up to congress or the courts to get the DMCA overturned. While many in the Slashdot community might think satellite piracy is okay (or maybe not, I haven't taken a poll) I think most of the general public probably doesn't blame DirecTV for wanting to protect their merchandise. (Even if some percentage of the general public uses a pirate card themselves.)
I'm not saying I think the website should be shut down. I believe in free speech, and I don't think the site is illegal under the DMCA, but this isn't the site to use as an example of "DMCA abuse."
I agree with you 100%. The house has value. If my character destroys your virtual house, your character should sue my character in a virtual court to recover virtual damages. Perhaps my character should even be sent to a virtual jail!
But these cases have no place in a real world court!
And I've had no trouble buying lockpicks in Florida. I recall reading somewhere (don't take this as legal advice! I've been wrong before!) that only the District of Columbia outlaws possession of lockpick sets, and the 50 states don't. I don't know about sales, but I do know people who have bought lockpicks in other states.
I've been in High Energy Physics in the U.S. for over 10 years now. When I first started, the two biggest platforms of choice were VAX/VMS and Unix (various flavors.) Starting in the mid-90's, Fermilab started supporting Linux, offering their own distro based on RedHat, and it is very widely used in the HEP community now. I've been using Linux for offline HEP data analysis for about 7 years now. Linux is supported by almost all major experiments, including FNAL experiments and BaBar at SLAC.
I realize that the original poster was more interested in online work involving specialized hardware. In HEP, we generally design our own hardware, so drivers aren't an issue. Perhaps before buying hardware, one should check to be sure technical specs are available which enable one to write one's own drivers.
If I buy a product that violates a patent, I'm not responsible for violating the patent, the company who sold it to me is.
Where did you hear that? In fact, the exact opposite is true. (I'm talking software patents here, not manufacturing process patents.) It is end users who are responsible for ensuring proper licensing of patented algorithms.
But that's all moot, as SCO's claims deal with copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. The latter isn't actionable against end users who were not complicit in the misappropriation, but copyright claims may be.
IANAL, so I'd be happy to hear from a lawyer or others if I'm incorrect.
I can't believe some of the responses I've been reading to my post.
Everyone seems to be thinking in terms of the Iraq conflict, and making the false assumption that just because many European nations opposed the war, that they were rooting for Saddam Hussein, and hoping for lots of American casualties.
Well, perhaps this will make the US think twice before going off to wage war that most of the rest of the world opposes.
I wasn't necessarily referring to wars that America starts. In fact, lets leave the U.S. out of this entirely. Suppose a European country was attacked by a rogue nation. Suppose their guided bombs were doing heavy damage to Europeans soldiers. Suppose the U.S. as a gesture of good will turns off civilian high-precision use of GPS. Suppose the Europeans were unable to do so with Galileo because there was no central authority with the power to do so quickly. Do you see my point?
Although there was some disagreement on the propriety of the most recent of U.S. military conflicts, the fact is, when the chips are down, and our friends are threatened (and yes, even France is still a friend, despite recent bickering) then the U.S. would come to their aid and vice versa. I just wonder how much thought was given to military use of the Galileo system when it was designed.
And how is the EU having thier own GPS system a threat to world peace?
Well, it isn't just European bombs that could be guided by the European satellite system, but anyone's bombs: Iraq, North Korea, etc. So, if the U.S. is in the middle of combat, and turns off public GPS to thwart emeny guided bombs, I can imagine a bunch of European beaurocrats sitting in Brussels trying to decide whether or not they should do the same. By the time they reach a consensus and turn off their system, the battle will be over, possibly with lots of allied casualties.
This really is an issue that needs to be taken seriously. Who controls the European system. How rapidly can a decision to be made to turn it off? Who controls the switch? These questions should probably be answered before the system is deployed.
Slashdot Mirror
As far as I understood, the whole advantage of fuel cell based laptops was you could simply open a spout and pour more fuel into it, like a camp stove. If, instead, you must buy proprietary cartridges like printers, I don't see why people would opt for a fuel cell based computer rather than a conventional rechargeable battery. In fact, the proprietary scheme you described above would be rather more like a laptop which runs on non-rechargeable batteries! I can't imagine anyone buying such a thing.
That used to be the case, but hasn't been since 1996, I believe, when Clinton signed the No Electronic Theft Act. That criminalizes downloading if you download more than, I believe $1000 worth of stuff within a 6 month period. I could be wrong on details, but I think that's the gist of it.
If a random person sells me a computer with a pirated copy of the book on it, then I would probably not have a legal right to keep that copy. But if J.K. Rowling herself sells me such a computer accidently (and she is the copyright holder) then I don't see why I would be required to delete it. I haven't copied it; she has, and she's the copyrighrt holder. Can you cite any statutes or precedents to back up your assertion?
Keep in mind, a "billion" doesn't mean the same thing everywhere. In America 1 billion = 10^9, whereas in Europe 1 billion = 10^12. Not sure if you're American or not, but if you are European I can understand why you'd be surprised at that number!
I don't know how you categorize 'professionals'. Someone who does image editing for a living, I agree, can in most cases afford Photoshop.
But there are many who do occasional editing and Photoshop is just too pricey. Gimp is fine if you're working on images for the web, but as has been said many, many times before, Gimp is useless for prepress work. (And it's not just professionals who do prepress work anymore.) Lack of good CMYK support, and color profiles for various input and output devices makes it completely unsuitable.
I'm not complaining about Gimp. For free software, it's great. Many people have put a lot of hard work into it, and provided a program which many people find very useful free of charge. But I do get irritated when people keep saying it does almost as much as Photoshop. It could, and I hope someday it does, but it isn't there yet.
I disagree. The vendor is doing business where the vendor is located, and the purchaser is doing business where they buy the goods. In fact, in the U.S., states are forbidden from forcing out of state businesses to collect tax on sales made to individuals in the state unless they have a business presence in that state. In many states, the purchaser is required to declare the items and pay a "use tax" on their state income tax returns, but people rarely do that.
So, this may be a fundamental difference between US law and European law. If European law regards that both parties are doing business at the purchasers location, and US law says otherwise, there is a conflict.
An EU customer won't be able to break the law because the VAT is collected by the US company.
Yes, I do understand that. I was trying to be a bit funny. But the point I was really trying to make was: who is going to make the U.S. companies collect the tax? Without an act of congress authorizing US officials to enforce this rule, how is it going to work?
"The law will be enforced at the point of origin"??? If I'm reading your post correctly, you are saying there will be an EU police force sent to America to ensure that American companies are collecting this tax?
So, it's your contention that the EU should be allowed to make its laws apply to the whole world (not just the EU)? Should all nations have that right?
Why the parent is modded insightfull is beyond me.
Why you're not modded as Flamebait is beyond me.
As for collecting VAT for all state, well this is the price for making buisness with those country.
An e-tailer selling electronic goods is not doing business with "those countries" but rather with an individual making a credit card purchase. Why should an e-tailer have the responsibility of verifying the physical location of its customers? Is that even possible with web anonymizer and proxy services available worldwide?
Do not like it ? Go away from those country.
Since when does an e-tailer need to be in a country to do business with a person in that country? If your country doesn't like it, get off the Internet.
No doubt the RIAA singled him (as well as three others) out because he ran the search engine, but I think the stronger legal threat came from the direct infringement charges. So, settling probably was the best option. People always say we should blame the pirates, not the technology providers, but he was doing both.
So you're saying that kids shouldn't be allowed any free time at all?!? Parents and teachers must keep them swamped with homework, sports activities, and time with parents that they can't have any life of their own? I agree that the above-mentioned activities are good for kids, but they need a life, too.
Not necessarily. Remember, the computer is only simulating the complex world, it doesn't have to implement it. Only things which we look at and focus our attention on need to be simulated. The far side of the moon need not be simulated, for example. It is possible, even in today's virtual reality type video games to create the illusion of worlds much more complex than the program really deals with. You assume there is detail beneath the surface which really isn't there, because it's easier for your mind to comprehend it that way than to think of it as an elaborate simulation.
But I don't think that most people will see it as an abuse of the DMCA for a digital satellite company to fight piracy. Satellite pirates really aren't the people you want to hold up to congress or the courts to get the DMCA overturned. While many in the Slashdot community might think satellite piracy is okay (or maybe not, I haven't taken a poll) I think most of the general public probably doesn't blame DirecTV for wanting to protect their merchandise. (Even if some percentage of the general public uses a pirate card themselves.)
I'm not saying I think the website should be shut down. I believe in free speech, and I don't think the site is illegal under the DMCA, but this isn't the site to use as an example of "DMCA abuse."
But these cases have no place in a real world court!
I realize that the original poster was more interested in online work involving specialized hardware. In HEP, we generally design our own hardware, so drivers aren't an issue. Perhaps before buying hardware, one should check to be sure technical specs are available which enable one to write one's own drivers.
But they've also left the door open to sue end users. It's the little guys who will end up caving.
Where did you hear that? In fact, the exact opposite is true. (I'm talking software patents here, not manufacturing process patents.) It is end users who are responsible for ensuring proper licensing of patented algorithms.
But that's all moot, as SCO's claims deal with copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. The latter isn't actionable against end users who were not complicit in the misappropriation, but copyright claims may be.
IANAL, so I'd be happy to hear from a lawyer or others if I'm incorrect.
Everyone seems to be thinking in terms of the Iraq conflict, and making the false assumption that just because many European nations opposed the war, that they were rooting for Saddam Hussein, and hoping for lots of American casualties.
Well, perhaps this will make the US think twice before going off to wage war that most of the rest of the world opposes.
I wasn't necessarily referring to wars that America starts. In fact, lets leave the U.S. out of this entirely. Suppose a European country was attacked by a rogue nation. Suppose their guided bombs were doing heavy damage to Europeans soldiers. Suppose the U.S. as a gesture of good will turns off civilian high-precision use of GPS. Suppose the Europeans were unable to do so with Galileo because there was no central authority with the power to do so quickly. Do you see my point?
Although there was some disagreement on the propriety of the most recent of U.S. military conflicts, the fact is, when the chips are down, and our friends are threatened (and yes, even France is still a friend, despite recent bickering) then the U.S. would come to their aid and vice versa. I just wonder how much thought was given to military use of the Galileo system when it was designed.
Well, it isn't just European bombs that could be guided by the European satellite system, but anyone's bombs: Iraq, North Korea, etc. So, if the U.S. is in the middle of combat, and turns off public GPS to thwart emeny guided bombs, I can imagine a bunch of European beaurocrats sitting in Brussels trying to decide whether or not they should do the same. By the time they reach a consensus and turn off their system, the battle will be over, possibly with lots of allied casualties.
This really is an issue that needs to be taken seriously. Who controls the European system. How rapidly can a decision to be made to turn it off? Who controls the switch? These questions should probably be answered before the system is deployed.