It strikes me that the obvious way to disseminate DeCSS is to package it into a self-extracting encrypted archive which, when executed, states 'Warning: Pressing this button also forfeits your right to bring any legal action against the contributor of this software', and, of course, a big button which say 'Install DeCSS'. Proving that the executable actually contains DeCSS without breaking the DMCA would be tricky for the likes of the MPAA.
What are the implications of the DMCA for, say, anti-virus software manufacturers?
Hamish
Re:An easy way to deter unoriginal patents
on
Perens on Patents
·
· Score: 1
If prior art is demonstrated that renders the patent obvious or non-original that patent is invalid.
<p>This is obviously far from enough deterrent.
<p>Big companies take out bogus patents, knowing full well that their size will scare others into paying them royalties on those patents.
Hamish
Re:An easy way to deter unoriginal patents
on
Perens on Patents
·
· Score: 1
I think that money is the wrong approach, because, as has been stated elsewhere in this thread, money is already what differentates the little guy and the big guy.
How about a punishment much more tailored to hurt those abusing - such as If prior art is found for one of your patents, you may not file another patent within a six-month period?
This from the self-acclaimed Karma Whore, who knows full well that this equivalent of false modesty will chide moderators into bumping his karma up a few hundredths of a percent.
Do you realize that couple having sex before marriage have something like 15 times the divorce rate of abstaining couples?
Isn't that a rather skewed statistic? Those who have sex outside marriage are presumably less influenced by external morality and therefore more likely to treat marriage as a legal convenience.
You and I were exchanging our views on this, and our conversation was just getting interesting, but then you stopped writing to me! So I deny your right to ask - although I'd like to see Jon answer the very same question.
You work for the fucking MAN!! I bet your multination corporation open sources all its software.
In fact, it doesn't. Given that I have nowhere claimed that I think all software should be open-sourced, could you please explain to me why you think your comment is so very clever?
When you are in college, your future is entirely speculative. Who can say what exactly Hardon will be doing?
Not you, that's for sure. If I had to bet on one of the three of us, it would doubtless be Hadron.
Does the fact that he can work on the kernel at Transmeta mean that he has the right to keep the other Transmeta code closed. Is that code the property of Transmeta? Or are they just selling a service?
Linus is selling a service to Transmeta. He is also selling code to them. In effect, he is doing two jobs.
If Linus keeps it closed then he is a hypocrite by your standards. Please be consistent, and how do you want your eggs?
You seem not to understand what the word 'hypocrite' means. If I drink coffee in the mornings, and tea in the afternoons, that does not make me a 'hypocrite'.
I'll have my eggs boiled, please. You'd better have yours scrambled, by the look of your face.
Hamish
p.s. Why? Why can I never remember not to feed the fucking trolls?
You appear to be ignoring my point (except perhaps for the word 'supposedly'). Is there such a thing as 'natural law', uninterpreted by man over the ages?
Some people hold it to be self-evident that property is theft. The American penal system takes away both life and liberty.
My point being, that these are just interpretations of some underlying 'natural' law.
My apologies. My sentence should have read, "As for Linus, well, I still don't see him making money from selling Linux". That is, after all, what we were talking about, no?
My point (for your own benefit, since I'm sure everyone else has already worked it out) is as follows: you told Hadron, "You will feel differently when you exepect to get paid for the product you say you are not producing". Hadron obviously expects nothing of the sort, and would much rather earn his bread and butter selling services.
As for Linus - which one of interviews, appearances and stock deals is a product? And are you aware that he took the job at Transmeta on the understanding that he would have time to work on the kernel?
I was very careful not to say that you had lost your principles, because I don't want to make the same assumptions about you as you obviously have about me. I work for a large multinational corporation. You have egg on your face.
I'm not flaming you about open source, I'm flaming you about your know-it-all attitude. As for Linus, well, I still don't see him making money from Linux, but I see him still giving a lot of his time to it, as he has done over the past decade (not all of which time has he been at university).
Actually, it's Offtopic, Flamebait, Troll, Redundant or Overrated. There are an equal number of positive moderation categories.
The poster in question had some good points to make, but the last paragraph of his post qualifies it as Flamebait or Troll:
Not all OSS software is better. BE [sic] is a better OS than Linux, has a ton more features, and is more stable.
The first sentence is undoubtedly true. However, in the second sentence, 'better' is completely unqualified and rather vacuous; 'a ton more features' is at best subjective, and 'more stable' simply untrue. Disclaimer: I use both BeOS and Linux according to their relative merits.
Hmm. You appear to be defining the 'real world' by looking around your own local environment. Exactly what you were criticising Hadron for, really.
Just because you yourself might have lost many of your principles when you left college, doesn't mean to say that everyone does. Have you ever heard of a Mr Linus Torvalds?
Where do your 'rights' come from? Why do I have the right to breathe air? I don't even have the right to decide whether or not I am born. Do I have the right to take my own life? Do I have the right to take my own drugs? Do I have the right to bang my own drum? The difference between rights and privileges is purely that the former are (supposed to be) universal.
Slashdot Mirror
Wouldn't it be possible to write a self-extracting encryption wrapper around DeCSS and its ilk, which presented the user with a choice:
1) continue, and forfeit any right to pursue the hosting site;
or 2) exit, without evidence that the program contravenes the DMCA;
leaving only the option of reverse-engineering the access control mechanism itself to prove anything?
Hamish
What are the implications of the DMCA for, say, anti-virus software manufacturers?
Hamish
If prior art is demonstrated that renders the patent obvious or non-original that patent is invalid.
<p>This is obviously far from enough deterrent.
<p>Big companies take out bogus patents, knowing full well that their size will scare others into paying them royalties on those patents.
Hamish
How about a punishment much more tailored to hurt those abusing - such as If prior art is found for one of your patents, you may not file another patent within a six-month period?
Hamish
This from the self-acclaimed Karma Whore, who knows full well that this equivalent of false modesty will chide moderators into bumping his karma up a few hundredths of a percent.
Hamish
If only we had the DCMA - then we could arrest the police for circumventing access control measures! ;)
Hamish
There is a right to silence - but it may harm your defence if you do not say anything which you later rely on in court.
In the UK, being Irish is a criminal offense punishable by being held without trial.
Quite. And it is also a criminal offence not to practise archery on Sundays.
In the UK, Nationalism is the same as being a thick racist thug.
Which type of Nationalism? Do you know the difference between the BNP, the SNP and Plaid Cymru?
In the UK, racism is an institutionalised way of life.
What a helpful generalisation.
Hamish
The correlation between divorce and extramarital sex is due to a decline in belief in the institution of marriage.
Hamish
Sorry - I was just trying to get your attention without emailing you again. Take your time.
Hamish
Isn't that a rather skewed statistic? Those who have sex outside marriage are presumably less influenced by external morality and therefore more likely to treat marriage as a legal convenience.
Numbers.
It's usually Romans, isn't it? ;)
Hamish
Patrick,
You and I were exchanging our views on this, and our conversation was just getting interesting, but then you stopped writing to me! So I deny your right to ask - although I'd like to see Jon answer the very same question.
Hamish
This answer pleases me better:
Why not?
Hamish
You daft bastard. What do you think axioms are? Ever heard of the Carroll paradox?
All nihilism offers is another version of false hope. This is the only chance you get - but what was it we had to do again?
Hamish
You appear to have bought into the MPAA tautology!
Hamish
'Usable'? Has the judge ever tried to run XINGDVD.EXE (or whatever) on Linux?
Hamish
Absolutely - the more trivial, the better.
You work for the fucking MAN!! I bet your multination corporation open sources all its software.
In fact, it doesn't. Given that I have nowhere claimed that I think all software should be open-sourced, could you please explain to me why you think your comment is so very clever?
Hamish
When you are in college, your future is entirely speculative. Who can say what exactly Hardon will be doing?
Not you, that's for sure. If I had to bet on one of the three of us, it would doubtless be Hadron.
Does the fact that he can work on the kernel at Transmeta mean that he has the right to keep the other Transmeta code closed. Is that code the property of Transmeta? Or are they just selling a service?
Linus is selling a service to Transmeta. He is also selling code to them. In effect, he is doing two jobs.
If Linus keeps it closed then he is a hypocrite by your standards. Please be consistent, and how do you want your eggs?
You seem not to understand what the word 'hypocrite' means. If I drink coffee in the mornings, and tea in the afternoons, that does not make me a 'hypocrite'.
I'll have my eggs boiled, please. You'd better have yours scrambled, by the look of your face.
Hamish
p.s. Why? Why can I never remember not to feed the fucking trolls?
You appear to be ignoring my point (except perhaps for the word 'supposedly'). Is there such a thing as 'natural law', uninterpreted by man over the ages?
Some people hold it to be self-evident that property is theft. The American penal system takes away both life and liberty.
My point being, that these are just interpretations of some underlying 'natural' law.
My apologies. My sentence should have read, "As for Linus, well, I still don't see him making money from selling Linux". That is, after all, what we were talking about, no?
My point (for your own benefit, since I'm sure everyone else has already worked it out) is as follows: you told Hadron, "You will feel differently when you exepect to get paid for the product you say you are not producing". Hadron obviously expects nothing of the sort, and would much rather earn his bread and butter selling services.
As for Linus - which one of interviews, appearances and stock deals is a product? And are you aware that he took the job at Transmeta on the understanding that he would have time to work on the kernel?
Hamish
Wouldn't it be nice if they were inherent and axiomatic? But where are they written? The Dead Sea Scrolls?
At least in my interpretation, if they are taken away from one, they are taken away from all.
Hamish
I was very careful not to say that you had lost your principles, because I don't want to make the same assumptions about you as you obviously have about me. I work for a large multinational corporation. You have egg on your face.
I'm not flaming you about open source, I'm flaming you about your know-it-all attitude. As for Linus, well, I still don't see him making money from Linux, but I see him still giving a lot of his time to it, as he has done over the past decade (not all of which time has he been at university).
thanks for playing,
Hamish
Actually, it's Offtopic, Flamebait, Troll, Redundant or Overrated. There are an equal number of positive moderation categories.
The poster in question had some good points to make, but the last paragraph of his post qualifies it as Flamebait or Troll:
Not all OSS software is better. BE [sic] is a better OS than Linux, has a ton more features, and is more stable.
The first sentence is undoubtedly true. However, in the second sentence, 'better' is completely unqualified and rather vacuous; 'a ton more features' is at best subjective, and 'more stable' simply untrue. Disclaimer: I use both BeOS and Linux according to their relative merits.
Hamish
Hmm. You appear to be defining the 'real world' by looking around your own local environment. Exactly what you were criticising Hadron for, really.
Just because you yourself might have lost many of your principles when you left college, doesn't mean to say that everyone does. Have you ever heard of a Mr Linus Torvalds?
Hamish
Where do your 'rights' come from? Why do I have the right to breathe air? I don't even have the right to decide whether or not I am born. Do I have the right to take my own life? Do I have the right to take my own drugs? Do I have the right to bang my own drum? The difference between rights and privileges is purely that the former are (supposed to be) universal.
Hamish