Why doesn't some company or group of people begin manufacturing CD Roms, RWs and DVDs that don't have the region coding, and selling them in the US? If they're manufactured without the coding, then how could it be illegal? They wouldn't be 'removing' any DRM technologies, or whatever the MPAA and RIAA call it.
Ok, then we'll just have a DoS attack on the Microsoft Windows Update Servers too, crash all those, and then Microsoft can't track everybody...Also have a DoS on the RIAA, and so on.
With so many distro's out there, with the consolidation of the biggies (Red Hat, Mandrake, Suse, etc) into two camps, we should see all of the features that each excels at combine into a few very good distros, which will help the cause because many companies (and schools, like mine) won't use it, because there's no standard, too hard to use/install, and there's no programs to use that are compatible (I know that's not true--but that's what evaluators and those who make the final decision say, and use for their reasoning.) The techies at my school, me included, are now putting out a few copies of OpenOffice.org 1.0 on windows 95 machines as test cases, and are trying to get Linux to run, K12LTSP.org edition, based off of Red Hat 7.3, just got new version, if it works great, may continue to distribute. The only thing I wish Red Hat had was such an easy to intall interface as Mandrake does. (Don't get me wrong, Red Hat's easy for me) But for those who don't know what they're doing, it's hard. That's why this combination will benefit the entire Linux and open source communities, because they're combining the strengths of several distros that are very popular, and are often chosen as test cases.
As soon as an open-sourced piece of software is written that IS fully compatible, as you envision, Microsoft will just change the formatting of the files, or will have it check to see what program it's interfacing with. Remember MS-DOS and Win 3.1? If Win didn't detect MS-DOS, then it wouldn't work. wouldn't be hard here, either. That's why StarOffice/OpenOffice.org does NOT have perfect MS Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Etc file filters...Microsoft keeps the file format private, so for the files to be opened as good as they do (I've used both...works great under StarOffice 6.0 beta/OpenOffice.org 1.0). If you can get Microsoft to willingly open up their file formats, do it. Same with Outlook/Exchange. Until Microsoft does, we will never see a piece of software that perfectly integrates with Outlook OR Exchange.
Right here. (http://www.k12ltsp.org) works great, comes bundled with some software, and is even a terminal server installation. Based off of Red Hat 7.2, I believe. We're looking to get it working here at my school, but the best we've got for servers are my two Compaq P-200's:-( Anybody got P-II's or higher that we could get? Boards, chips, anything....most of our systems are 486/P-75's (for PC, 33-75) and 575/580 (for mac, 33 MHz)
All of our PCs are donated by CFS (Computers For Schools Refurbishing Program) St. Cloud State Pennitentary, St. Cloud, Minn, and (ours) have come with Win 95A/B license. They're shyite. We get complete systems, but the two of us who do hardware (mind you, we have over 700 computers in our school) can't get through them all...I'm a volunteer, still a student, only work one hour a day. We have a second PAID staffer (neither one is me) who basically does software. We have NO tech budget whatsoever in our school.
CFS gets their computers from anyone who is willing to donate them to CFS, but they are usually so old, they won't run much, and when they do, usually not very well. We're looking into *nix up here, mainly as terminals, so we don't have to keep replacing the HDD's (stupid hard drives....die if ya look at 'em funny....)
We're told we cannot move those licenses to other machines, so they're basically an OEM license, 'cept we don't get any documentation, we're supposed to call them and have them come reinstall if one dies (yeah right, hour plus drive, we've got over 150 of these CFS POSes)
The real problem isn't that Microsoft is the one that is being discussed that bothers me. If it works, great. What bothers me, however, and I believe this goes for many people out there, is the fact that Passport, which Hotmail uses, is so often hacked, and easily broken into. So far, whenever I hear about a new security loophole in Hotmail, it usually took someone under an hour of looking (usually not very hard either) to locate and exploit.
If the public at large, can create a new way, either from scratch, or based off of another existing technology, Passport for example, or else the Liberty Alliance's idea, (Sun, AOL, etc....) then we've got one. Whatever it is, it should be in the public domain, or owned by the government, NOT licensed from any company. If I remember correctly, the Liberty Alliance's technology will be open to anyone, at use without any cost, besides signing up with the system. To use Passport, you have to be a Microsoft Affiliate, and/or pay royalties to use it.
Overall, I think a group should be set up, maybe by W3C (http://www.org), or at least tied in through them, so that no one company profits from this, and ties the government into such a system.
I've got three upstairs, the way to tell is the space on the backside (the top flat surface) on the '64 it's about an inch. ..in the pictures, it's more like three. ..and the color IS wrong, it is a light brown.
If you think about it, this law will only stop the 'casual copiers,' but they probably have a buddy who can get around it anyway. This law is for the 1% of violators, who have ALREADY found ways around the current copy protection (DVD country codes, etc....) and stops the other 99% from doing anything related. Those 1% will STILL do what they want, and will still get around the protection. Basically, this law will stop the law-abiding people from doing anything related to copying anything on their computers, nothing else.
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Why doesn't some company or group of people begin manufacturing CD Roms, RWs and DVDs that don't have the region coding, and selling them in the US? If they're manufactured without the coding, then how could it be illegal? They wouldn't be 'removing' any DRM technologies, or whatever the MPAA and RIAA call it.
Ok, then we'll just have a DoS attack on the Microsoft Windows Update Servers too, crash all those, and then Microsoft can't track everybody...Also have a DoS on the RIAA, and so on.
....The newest version of Windows!
With so many distro's out there, with the consolidation of the biggies (Red Hat, Mandrake, Suse, etc) into two camps, we should see all of the features that each excels at combine into a few very good distros, which will help the cause because many companies (and schools, like mine) won't use it, because there's no standard, too hard to use/install, and there's no programs to use that are compatible (I know that's not true--but that's what evaluators and those who make the final decision say, and use for their reasoning.) The techies at my school, me included, are now putting out a few copies of OpenOffice.org 1.0 on windows 95 machines as test cases, and are trying to get Linux to run, K12LTSP.org edition, based off of Red Hat 7.3, just got new version, if it works great, may continue to distribute. The only thing I wish Red Hat had was such an easy to intall interface as Mandrake does. (Don't get me wrong, Red Hat's easy for me) But for those who don't know what they're doing, it's hard. That's why this combination will benefit the entire Linux and open source communities, because they're combining the strengths of several distros that are very popular, and are often chosen as test cases.
As soon as an open-sourced piece of software is written that IS fully compatible, as you envision, Microsoft will just change the formatting of the files, or will have it check to see what program it's interfacing with. Remember MS-DOS and Win 3.1? If Win didn't detect MS-DOS, then it wouldn't work. wouldn't be hard here, either. That's why StarOffice/OpenOffice.org does NOT have perfect MS Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Etc file filters...Microsoft keeps the file format private, so for the files to be opened as good as they do (I've used both...works great under StarOffice 6.0 beta/OpenOffice.org 1.0). If you can get Microsoft to willingly open up their file formats, do it. Same with Outlook/Exchange. Until Microsoft does, we will never see a piece of software that perfectly integrates with Outlook OR Exchange.
Right here. (http://www.k12ltsp.org) works great, comes bundled with some software, and is even a terminal server installation. Based off of Red Hat 7.2, I believe. We're looking to get it working here at my school, but the best we've got for servers are my two Compaq P-200's :-( Anybody got P-II's or higher that we could get? Boards, chips, anything....most of our systems are 486/P-75's (for PC, 33-75) and 575/580 (for mac, 33 MHz)
All of our PCs are donated by CFS (Computers For Schools Refurbishing Program) St. Cloud State Pennitentary, St. Cloud, Minn, and (ours) have come with Win 95A/B license. They're shyite. We get complete systems, but the two of us who do hardware (mind you, we have over 700 computers in our school) can't get through them all...I'm a volunteer, still a student, only work one hour a day. We have a second PAID staffer (neither one is me) who basically does software. We have NO tech budget whatsoever in our school.
CFS gets their computers from anyone who is willing to donate them to CFS, but they are usually so old, they won't run much, and when they do, usually not very well. We're looking into *nix up here, mainly as terminals, so we don't have to keep replacing the HDD's (stupid hard drives....die if ya look at 'em funny....)
We're told we cannot move those licenses to other machines, so they're basically an OEM license, 'cept we don't get any documentation, we're supposed to call them and have them come reinstall if one dies (yeah right, hour plus drive, we've got over 150 of these CFS POSes)
The real problem isn't that Microsoft is the one that is being discussed that bothers me. If it works, great. What bothers me, however, and I believe this goes for many people out there, is the fact that Passport, which Hotmail uses, is so often hacked, and easily broken into. So far, whenever I hear about a new security loophole in Hotmail, it usually took someone under an hour of looking (usually not very hard either) to locate and exploit.
If the public at large, can create a new way, either from scratch, or based off of another existing technology, Passport for example, or else the Liberty Alliance's idea, (Sun, AOL, etc....) then we've got one. Whatever it is, it should be in the public domain, or owned by the government, NOT licensed from any company. If I remember correctly, the Liberty Alliance's technology will be open to anyone, at use without any cost, besides signing up with the system. To use Passport, you have to be a Microsoft Affiliate, and/or pay royalties to use it.
Overall, I think a group should be set up, maybe by W3C (http://www.org), or at least tied in through them, so that no one company profits from this, and ties the government into such a system.
I've got three upstairs, the way to tell is the space on the backside (the top flat surface) on the '64 it's about an inch. . .in the pictures, it's more like three. . .and the color IS wrong, it is a light brown.
I got two and a half (one doesn't work right) and one of them is still in the original packaging, with the $299 sticker on it.
If you think about it, this law will only stop the 'casual copiers,' but they probably have a buddy who can get around it anyway. This law is for the 1% of violators, who have ALREADY found ways around the current copy protection (DVD country codes, etc....) and stops the other 99% from doing anything related. Those 1% will STILL do what they want, and will still get around the protection. Basically, this law will stop the law-abiding people from doing anything related to copying anything on their computers, nothing else.
Does anyone know what the current taxes are on all the blank media here in the US are?