The modding scene is much like the P2P scene, of course there are a few legit users who want to, say, run Linux on their Xbox, use their PS2 as a media center (to play Divx/Xvid/SVCD movies) or they want to use Kazaa lite or eMule to download the music of an independant artist who puts their music out there for legal consumption.
Of course, this isn't the norm. If I had to guess, I'd say that 98% of P2P/Mod-chip users are there to get/play copyrighted works.
The rest may do legal things with them, but face it - if the other 98% weren't there, there would be no P2P, and there would be no Mod-chip.
When a company looks to sell a mod-chip, they don't advertise "RUN LINUX ON YOUR XBOX" or "PLAY YOUR HOME ENCODED AND PERFECTLY LEGAL DIVX DVD RIPS ON YOUR PS2".
Of course not, they advertise "PLAY BACKUPS AND IMPORTS" and "GET ANY GAME ONLINE!". Backups = Pirated ISO images (downloaded or hard-copied), everyone knows it, it's their safe word.
I'm as liberal as the next guy, and I even use the GC/PSO/BBA trick to play old NES ROM's on my Gamecube. Mod-chips and P2P, they are and should definitely remain legal - they, by themselves, don't break the laws. However - we all know that the people who use them do, in fact the overwhelming majority of them do.
The author of this article shouldn't be criticized for stating the plain truth that mod-chips are overwhelmingly used by pirates. Additionally, with how easy they are to install now, and how cheap they are, and with the wide acceptance of P2P, IRC fileshares and broadband - I can understand that game developers may not realize profits from these pirates, where they would have before.
It's new, and it's a great mold between deathmatch (Q3/UT) and round-based teamplay (CS). There are some really good players, but most are average or below. Give it a go.
Make sure to take out the warning message "ok fine then, you don't want cookies..." that pops up when you disallow it yer cookies (buy yer own thx!). This was surely a debug message, it's not useful anymore;)
By far the best and most original game I purchased this year is Super Mario Sunshine. I'm really amazed that Nintendo hasn't followed up this genius Mario theme with at least 10 games by now.
The CPL (www.thecpl.com) has a winter event that is just about to begin in Dallas, TX, USA as we speak, with around $200,000 USD in winnings. Games are Counter-Strike and Halo PC. They generally have 2 events a year, of at least this caliber. There are also similar organizations holding equally large tournaments. Pro gaming is becoming a reality in the US and Europe too!
For those interested in finding out what happens, who wins, etc - the play-by-play is at www.gotfrag.com (a tiny plug)!
The GPL requires that any derivative software be distributed under the conditions that anyone who receives the distribution (in any form, including an embedded device) has the additional option of obtaining the source code to the derivative work.
Any embedded device requires software, and it seems these manufacturers are using software from Sigma which is based on parts of the Linux kernel, which is licensed under the GPL.
These devices are running GPL'd software, therefore the manufacturers need to make the code available.
As to "where is the line?", there is no line. If you sell a computer running Linux, say RedHat 7. Whoever you sell it to can obtain the source from RedHat. Just becuase you didn't write it doesnt mean that you arent responsible for what you do with it. It's not that you have to hand deliver the code with a pretty pink bow on it, but you do need to make it available per the license.
P.S. - I'm not a big GPL supporter, The BSD License is more commercially acceptable. However, when people take GPL code, they do need to obey the rules.
Based on this, what seems to be a second offense for Sigma, the FSF might want to step in with some of their legal money. I hate to think of it this way, but Sigma is a good target to test (and hopefully prove) exactly how well the GPL stands up in court. It might provide some "prior legal judgement" basis for the upcoming legal battle with SCO.
Disclaimer: IANAL, and I have no idea what I'm talking about either.
"Yeah, let's make sure that every normal english domain name can easily be spoofed with accented characters, not to mention having everyone open up and hunt around charmap to get to these new domains"...
This isnt going to be abused, AT ALL. Worst idea ever.
The Internet (domain names, top-tier nameservers, nameserver software, web and e-mail server software, all markup documents) runs on english, there's no way to i18n it without opening up a world of hurt. Sorry, but I don't want to have to upgrade BIND to a whole new series of bugs and exploits just so that some jagoff can open up his own go~o`le'.com.
Regardless of the success/failure/accuracy of this test, it IS good that we are thinking about it. In fact, it's very important that there are some qualified people thinking about this. Tax money going to a good thing here, even if we don't need it (YET!)
See, this is what happens when you let bored, lonely coders work around a stash of hard liquor... Maybe Mississippi will learn a lesson?
Or better yet, maybe Microsoft will take a note from this before such a disaster happens over there... Wait, that already happened, and it was called Windows ME.
The award for the ownership of the most packet-filtered IP address in the world, previously held by Mr. Spa Malaur - a mail server operator from China, has been awarded to Verisign.
OpenBSD is getting VERY close. It's taken a lot of design thought, a lot of eyes, a lot of manpower, and a lot of time, but OpenBSD is getting very close.
I'll agree that C lends itself to these things, but its the standard for a number of reasons, and frankly, anything else will introduce the same types of problems.
Building on what we have makes the most sense, and given a bit more time, I'm confident that OpenBSD will be there.
Who would say such a thing? Are you high? Low blood pressure not getting enough of the red stuff to your brain?
You cannot beat the OpenBSD/OpenSSH coding standards, audit process, or documentation. Every software will have bugs, but replacing it with something more likely to have bugs, with a more restrictive license, less documentation, and next to no track record isnt a good idea just because it has "GNU" in it's name.
Slashdot Mirror
The modding scene is much like the P2P scene, of course there are a few legit users who want to, say, run Linux on their Xbox, use their PS2 as a media center (to play Divx/Xvid/SVCD movies) or they want to use Kazaa lite or eMule to download the music of an independant artist who puts their music out there for legal consumption.
Of course, this isn't the norm. If I had to guess, I'd say that 98% of P2P/Mod-chip users are there to get/play copyrighted works.
The rest may do legal things with them, but face it - if the other 98% weren't there, there would be no P2P, and there would be no Mod-chip.
When a company looks to sell a mod-chip, they don't advertise "RUN LINUX ON YOUR XBOX" or "PLAY YOUR HOME ENCODED AND PERFECTLY LEGAL DIVX DVD RIPS ON YOUR PS2".
Of course not, they advertise "PLAY BACKUPS AND IMPORTS" and "GET ANY GAME ONLINE!". Backups = Pirated ISO images (downloaded or hard-copied), everyone knows it, it's their safe word.
I'm as liberal as the next guy, and I even use the GC/PSO/BBA trick to play old NES ROM's on my Gamecube. Mod-chips and P2P, they are and should definitely remain legal - they, by themselves, don't break the laws. However - we all know that the people who use them do, in fact the overwhelming majority of them do.
The author of this article shouldn't be criticized for stating the plain truth that mod-chips are overwhelmingly used by pirates. Additionally, with how easy they are to install now, and how cheap they are, and with the wide acceptance of P2P, IRC fileshares and broadband - I can understand that game developers may not realize profits from these pirates, where they would have before.
It's new, and it's a great mold between deathmatch (Q3/UT) and round-based teamplay (CS). There are some really good players, but most are average or below. Give it a go.
Actually, it's approximately... 0%. You can't route from internal 10.10.10.0/24 to another 10.10.10.0/24 past your initial network. Think about it.
So, you want me to guess their webadmin password and edit it myself?
Make sure to take out the warning message "ok fine then, you don't want cookies..." that pops up when you disallow it yer cookies (buy yer own thx!). This was surely a debug message, it's not useful anymore ;)
Just embed the applet into your HTML, view the source of that page - you'll get it.
By far the best and most original game I purchased this year is Super Mario Sunshine. I'm really amazed that Nintendo hasn't followed up this genius Mario theme with at least 10 games by now.
The CPL (www.thecpl.com) has a winter event that is just about to begin in Dallas, TX, USA as we speak, with around $200,000 USD in winnings. Games are Counter-Strike and Halo PC. They generally have 2 events a year, of at least this caliber. There are also similar organizations holding equally large tournaments. Pro gaming is becoming a reality in the US and Europe too!
For those interested in finding out what happens, who wins, etc - the play-by-play is at www.gotfrag.com (a tiny plug)!
Well, it would pay for the cameras and security guards...
The GPL requires that any derivative software be distributed under the conditions that anyone who receives the distribution (in any form, including an embedded device) has the additional option of obtaining the source code to the derivative work.
Any embedded device requires software, and it seems these manufacturers are using software from Sigma which is based on parts of the Linux kernel, which is licensed under the GPL.
These devices are running GPL'd software, therefore the manufacturers need to make the code available.
As to "where is the line?", there is no line. If you sell a computer running Linux, say RedHat 7. Whoever you sell it to can obtain the source from RedHat. Just becuase you didn't write it doesnt mean that you arent responsible for what you do with it. It's not that you have to hand deliver the code with a pretty pink bow on it, but you do need to make it available per the license.
P.S. - I'm not a big GPL supporter, The BSD License is more commercially acceptable. However, when people take GPL code, they do need to obey the rules.
Based on this, what seems to be a second offense for Sigma, the FSF might want to step in with some of their legal money. I hate to think of it this way, but Sigma is a good target to test (and hopefully prove) exactly how well the GPL stands up in court. It might provide some "prior legal judgement" basis for the upcoming legal battle with SCO.
Disclaimer: IANAL, and I have no idea what I'm talking about either.
"Yeah, let's make sure that every normal english domain name can easily be spoofed with accented characters, not to mention having everyone open up and hunt around charmap to get to these new domains"...
This isnt going to be abused, AT ALL. Worst idea ever.
The Internet (domain names, top-tier nameservers, nameserver software, web and e-mail server software, all markup documents) runs on english, there's no way to i18n it without opening up a world of hurt. Sorry, but I don't want to have to upgrade BIND to a whole new series of bugs and exploits just so that some jagoff can open up his own go~o`le'.com.
Tell that to South Korea, they have TV stations dedicated to Starcraft!
Woah! Maybe I can get his job!
Don't worry marketing idiots, it doesn't matter what you call it. You're still assholes.
Regardless of the success/failure/accuracy of this test, it IS good that we are thinking about it. In fact, it's very important that there are some qualified people thinking about this. Tax money going to a good thing here, even if we don't need it (YET!)
http://www.gotfrag.com/?node=xdemos&x=&order=&page =&query=&eventid=34&mapid=0
7 58 0F
GotFrag has ~ 40 demos from WCG 2003
http://www.gotfrag.com/?node=demo&id=5404&x=072
That is a zip with a bunch of WC3 replays from the event
www.gotfrag.com
Has most all of the demos from the Counter-Strike tournament.
See, this is what happens when you let bored, lonely coders work around a stash of hard liquor... Maybe Mississippi will learn a lesson?
Or better yet, maybe Microsoft will take a note from this before such a disaster happens over there... Wait, that already happened, and it was called Windows ME.
The award for the ownership of the most packet-filtered IP address in the world, previously held by Mr. Spa Malaur - a mail server operator from China, has been awarded to Verisign.
I'll be arrested tomorrow morning for telling everyone this fantastic piracy secret:
If you borrow someone's installation CD, you can install the software!
P.S. Don't tell anyone!
No no no, every technically competant person in China has one job: keep their mail server operating as an open relay.
For more information, contact me.
Arpanet mail:
RMS@MIT-MC.ARPA
What's an "ARPA", and why wont Network Solutions let me register one!?!?!
Anyone who owns a Segway deservs to fall down everynow and then and again and again.
OpenBSD is getting VERY close. It's taken a lot of design thought, a lot of eyes, a lot of manpower, and a lot of time, but OpenBSD is getting very close.
I'll agree that C lends itself to these things, but its the standard for a number of reasons, and frankly, anything else will introduce the same types of problems.
Building on what we have makes the most sense, and given a bit more time, I'm confident that OpenBSD will be there.
Who would say such a thing? Are you high? Low blood pressure not getting enough of the red stuff to your brain?
You cannot beat the OpenBSD/OpenSSH coding standards, audit process, or documentation. Every software will have bugs, but replacing it with something more likely to have bugs, with a more restrictive license, less documentation, and next to no track record isnt a good idea just because it has "GNU" in it's name.