Until that law was passed it was legal to borrow and copy a CD from a friend as long as it was for personal use.
I believe it was, and still is legal for you to make backup copies of your CD's and to make greatest hits compilations of your collection for *your own personal use* - not for your friends?
What's new is that you're not allowed to do this any longer, if it means you have to circumvent the technical measures that content providers built into a particular medium to prevent this, ie. if the CD in question is copyprotected somehow. Think CD's without af CD-logo, think Star Wars scores.
This has a whole lot of implications, and for the CD's it may not be as big deal, but for DVD's for the time being, it means it's illegal to watch these on GNU/Linux systems because you have to circumvent technical measures (with DeCSS). Of course with a closed source and licensed DVD player, it's ok, but I believe you won't find this anywhere anytime soon for GNU/Linux. The essence of this is that EUCD conflicts with development of Free and Open Soure Software, in part because the content providers get to decide what *you* do with your *own* CD's and DVD's, etc. There's a whole lot more to the FOSS issue.
This is just the beginning. I don't watch DVD's on my computer, but as I stated elsewhere in another comment, the interpretation of the EUCD has led to the conclusion, here in Denmark, that it's illegal to import DVD's (and CD's for that matter) from outside the EU, with the intent of selling them. Again, it's completely legal to privately import them, as I do now, but it means that all the stores where I used to buy my Region 1 DVD's are closing shop.
In other words the EUCD makes it illegal for these stores to import *culture* for me - think about it - I mean sure I could just buy the same DVD's in Region 2, but what about Japanese Manga titles (Region 4), or really hard to come by Horror movies (mostly Retion 1).
Anyway, Carlsberg is great, but Tuborg rules, ok!:-)
all the states have agreed to implement a law within two years
I'd like to add to this, since it's something that in part escapes the attention of most people. People! These EU laws don't totally come out of the blue, and then we all get to vote on them in out respective countries, as to test us. These are carefully planned years ahead, like the EUCD (EU InfoSec Directive whatever), and are carefully negotiated amongst our elected officials in the EU. Add some heavy preassure by different Industry Organitations, and some influence by different Interest Groups, and you can see these poor bastards (the officials) take a lot of heat.:-)
In the end, they don't propose a law unless there's a reasonable chance it'll pass in all member countries - there's just too much invested in the process. Support you local interest group, let your voice be heard!
Denmark - nearing the end of it's EU Presidency - was too preoccupied with other EU affairs, mainly integrating new member countries. It was apparently so important that this law be passed before 2002-12-22, that suddenly a massive vote against the law at the second hearing, turned to a massive vote for the law at the third hearing. One party actually "pushed the wrong voting button" - literally, and two (I believe it was two, one being the second largest) other parties had suddenly changed their minds? WTF?!
For a status of the implementation of the EUCD, look here.
Too bad my country didn't see why the EUCD is totally bogus. I'm not allowed to buy my region 1 DVD's here in Denmark anymore, so I have to import them. My favourite DVD stores are closing.:-(
The company I work for has four TP600e's, and I believe all of them have had their batteries replaced at least once. The battery life on these babies are worse than other IBM models we've had so far (most recently A21m's), and we have indeed considered this to be a bit odd.
The press release uses the <PRE> element for rendering preformatted text.
This is just to tell the browser that it may render the text with a fixed-width font and leave the white spaces intact. In this case your browser utilizes the Courier font which is one of many fixed-width fonts.
You're right! Anyway, I guess the real answer lies in which distro has the best documentation available, as in easy to digest and not necessarily written by the people who created the distro (which tend to get quite verbose and is better to use as a reference).
If your local LUG made their own step-by-step beginner's guides to installing/using some of the different distros, the newbies could read these and then judge for themselves which one to _try out first_? I know my local LUG uses this approach.
I haven't tried Mandrake yet, but I'm sure it's a fine distro. You have to remember though, that all the distros out there serve the needs of different people. I don't believe there's "One Distro To Rule Them All", because what some people will like about one particular distro, others will hate - because people are different. Surprise!
Don't let the others at your LUG get to you. Be happy that there's a distro for you too.
Oh, one last note. For those who have been told that the Debian installer will kill you, read this: you only ever have to install Debian once.:-)
That's stupid alright! Though, it seemed to me like the article was mainly concerned with the _initial_ connect. Anyway, they've since updated the blog with this bit:
UPDATE: Since this post got Slashdotted, I've been getting a pretty fair amount of e-mail, suggesting that the behavior we observed here might be anything from T/TCP to HTTP/1.1 pipelining to delirium tremens. Well, I should point out that this phenomenon was something we observed in 1997, before HTTP/1.1 was in wide use; both the client and server were using vanilla HTTP/1.0. As it turned out, it was actually the NT stack that was causing this to happen-- it didn't matter what client or server software you used. It even happened with our home-grown network test tools.
It's entirely possible that Microsoft has changed the NT stack in recent iterations so that this doesn't happen anymore. But if you're trying to reproduce the behavior, use NT 4.0 machines for worst results.
But, wouldn't you need to setup the connection properly even if it's a persistent connection? Persistent just means we don't close the connection again just in case more data needs to be sent later. When we close the browser or go to a new page we'll still close the connection with the server gracefully.
I haven't read the HTTP1.1 spec, so please bear with me.
I don't know. I guess you could be lucky with getting the server's HTML code back in one hit assuming it fits into a single UDP packet.
But, we also have graphics and other much bigger chunks of data which needs to get to the client from the server. I'd be a bumby ride without the flow-control mechanisms which TCP conveniently provides for us already. Remember the ethernet frames are less than 65K.
Anyway, I can't speak for the nature of your document contents, but OOo formats are compressed. Some MS Office formats are not - stuff a JPG image in a Word 97 document, and the file size explodes!
The article doesn't mention which OS StarOffice will be offered for.
I know that the official Danish StarOffice CD includes Win32 / Linux(no specific distro mentioned) / Unix(Solaris) versions.
However, most people will probably use the Win32 version, as Windows is probably the most common OS used at these schools, aswell as at home.
This is still a Good Thing nonetheless, if people choose to take the offer. You see, if StarOffice is on the pc's at school, then people would probably install at home too. They'll think to themselves: "this Linux OS everybody's talking about now, I think I'll try it out" - then they install it, and learn that they can use StarOffice/OOo on that OS too - "Cool!" they now think to themselves. They'd learn too, the meaning of the word cross-platform. Soon thereafter they get greedy and fire up Mozilla - or some other browser - on Linux, mind you. They'll try their home banking system and when it breaks, suddenly, they'll wonder why. When they ask around I hope someone will be able to teach them about the advantages of open standards. Their teachers preferably!
Slashdot Mirror
I believe it was, and still is legal for you to make backup copies of your CD's and to make greatest hits compilations of your collection for *your own personal use* - not for your friends?
What's new is that you're not allowed to do this any longer, if it means you have to circumvent the technical measures that content providers built into a particular medium to prevent this, ie. if the CD in question is copyprotected somehow. Think CD's without af CD-logo, think Star Wars scores.
This has a whole lot of implications, and for the CD's it may not be as big deal, but for DVD's for the time being, it means it's illegal to watch these on GNU/Linux systems because you have to circumvent technical measures (with DeCSS). Of course with a closed source and licensed DVD player, it's ok, but I believe you won't find this anywhere anytime soon for GNU/Linux. The essence of this is that EUCD conflicts with development of Free and Open Soure Software, in part because the content providers get to decide what *you* do with your *own* CD's and DVD's, etc. There's a whole lot more to the FOSS issue.
This is just the beginning. I don't watch DVD's on my computer, but as I stated elsewhere in another comment, the interpretation of the EUCD has led to the conclusion, here in Denmark, that it's illegal to import DVD's (and CD's for that matter) from outside the EU, with the intent of selling them. Again, it's completely legal to privately import them, as I do now, but it means that all the stores where I used to buy my Region 1 DVD's are closing shop.
In other words the EUCD makes it illegal for these stores to import *culture* for me - think about it - I mean sure I could just buy the same DVD's in Region 2, but what about Japanese Manga titles (Region 4), or really hard to come by Horror movies (mostly Retion 1).
Anyway, Carlsberg is great, but Tuborg rules, ok! :-)
zAs do I ... err Danish law that is.
Not quite sure what sanctions they do have though, probably some strong ones anyway.Denmark recently lifted the ban on _canned_ beer and soft drinks. Whoo, that was a big deal for the EU Commision - pending lawsuits and such. :-)
zI'd like to add to this, since it's something that in part escapes the attention of most people. People! These EU laws don't totally come out of the blue, and then we all get to vote on them in out respective countries, as to test us. These are carefully planned years ahead, like the EUCD (EU InfoSec Directive whatever), and are carefully negotiated amongst our elected officials in the EU. Add some heavy preassure by different Industry Organitations, and some influence by different Interest Groups, and you can see these poor bastards (the officials) take a lot of heat. :-)
In the end, they don't propose a law unless there's a reasonable chance it'll pass in all member countries - there's just too much invested in the process. Support you local interest group, let your voice be heard!
zYou're lucky, this time!
Denmark - nearing the end of it's EU Presidency - was too preoccupied with other EU affairs, mainly integrating new member countries. It was apparently so important that this law be passed before 2002-12-22, that suddenly a massive vote against the law at the second hearing, turned to a massive vote for the law at the third hearing. One party actually "pushed the wrong voting button" - literally, and two (I believe it was two, one being the second largest) other parties had suddenly changed their minds? WTF?!
zFor a status of the implementation of the EUCD, look here .
Too bad my country didn't see why the EUCD is totally bogus. I'm not allowed to buy my region 1 DVD's here in Denmark anymore, so I have to import them. My favourite DVD stores are closing. :-(
zThe company I work for has four TP600e's, and I believe all of them have had their batteries replaced at least once. The battery life on these babies are worse than other IBM models we've had so far (most recently A21m's), and we have indeed considered this to be a bit odd.
zWhen we start thinking of complexity issues, we have to change our viewpoint as to what is in nature and what is invented.
zWell, I couldn't - somewhere around the third iteration 'computing platform' just goes wrong for me. :-)
zTry saying that fast ten times in a row?
zComputer ... tea, Earl Gray, hot.
Oops, 7 seasons of TNG taking it's toll! :-)
zI wonder.
How long before someone claims IP rights on the technologies herein?
zThe press release uses the <PRE> element for rendering preformatted text.
This is just to tell the browser that it may render the text with a fixed-width font and leave the white spaces intact. In this case your browser utilizes the Courier font which is one of many fixed-width fonts.
zI agree, this can't be harmless to humans.
Even a microwave doppler radar can fry your eyes and balls especially. Don't bother to choose which ones to cover either.
zInteresting. This makes me wonder whether we get to accept the Windows CE EULA ourselves? The one that says we can't sue MS if anything goes wrong?
zOh man, I knew a guy like that once. The horror, the pain!
Sounds like our computer scientist in this story forgot some simple Unix philosophy:
- Each program should be for a single purpose and should perform that purpose well.
Funny! I saw this just yesterday while booting a ThinkPad a21m (reported by Donald Becker's 3com driver):
I love these cookies! Maybe the PCMCIA committee should volunteer? :-)
zYou're right! Anyway, I guess the real answer lies in which distro has the best documentation available, as in easy to digest and not necessarily written by the people who created the distro (which tend to get quite verbose and is better to use as a reference).
If your local LUG made their own step-by-step beginner's guides to installing/using some of the different distros, the newbies could read these and then judge for themselves which one to _try out first_? I know my local LUG uses this approach.
per machine...Oh, I think that's implied. :-)
zI haven't tried Mandrake yet, but I'm sure it's a fine distro. You have to remember though, that all the distros out there serve the needs of different people. I don't believe there's "One Distro To Rule Them All", because what some people will like about one particular distro, others will hate - because people are different. Surprise!
Don't let the others at your LUG get to you. Be happy that there's a distro for you too.
Oh, one last note. For those who have been told that the Debian installer will kill you, read this: you only ever have to install Debian once. :-)
zA WITCH!!! A WITCH!!!
I'm sure everybody copies features - the difference is that with FOSS, nobody has to code the same features twice. Not so with proprietary software.
z
That's stupid alright! Though, it seemed to me like the article was mainly concerned with the _initial_ connect. Anyway, they've since updated the blog with this bit:
UPDATE: Since this post got Slashdotted, I've been getting a pretty fair amount of e-mail, suggesting that the behavior we observed here might be anything from T/TCP to HTTP/1.1 pipelining to delirium tremens. Well, I should point out that this phenomenon was something we observed in 1997, before HTTP/1.1 was in wide use; both the client and server were using vanilla HTTP/1.0. As it turned out, it was actually the NT stack that was causing this to happen-- it didn't matter what client or server software you used. It even happened with our home-grown network test tools.
It's entirely possible that Microsoft has changed the NT stack in recent iterations so that this doesn't happen anymore. But if you're trying to reproduce the behavior, use NT 4.0 machines for worst results.
All the fuss for their premature assumptions. :-)
zBut, wouldn't you need to setup the connection properly even if it's a persistent connection? Persistent just means we don't close the connection again just in case more data needs to be sent later. When we close the browser or go to a new page we'll still close the connection with the server gracefully.
I haven't read the HTTP1.1 spec, so please bear with me.
zI don't know. I guess you could be lucky with getting the server's HTML code back in one hit assuming it fits into a single UDP packet.
But, we also have graphics and other much bigger chunks of data which needs to get to the client from the server. I'd be a bumby ride without the flow-control mechanisms which TCP conveniently provides for us already. Remember the ethernet frames are less than 65K.
Just my two cents.
zThat's some ratio alright!
Anyway, I can't speak for the nature of your document contents, but OOo formats are compressed. Some MS Office formats are not - stuff a JPG image in a Word 97 document, and the file size explodes!
zThe article doesn't mention which OS StarOffice will be offered for.
I know that the official Danish StarOffice CD includes Win32 / Linux(no specific distro mentioned) / Unix(Solaris) versions.
However, most people will probably use the Win32 version, as Windows is probably the most common OS used at these schools, aswell as at home.
This is still a Good Thing nonetheless, if people choose to take the offer. You see, if StarOffice is on the pc's at school, then people would probably install at home too. They'll think to themselves: "this Linux OS everybody's talking about now, I think I'll try it out" - then they install it, and learn that they can use StarOffice/OOo on that OS too - "Cool!" they now think to themselves. They'd learn too, the meaning of the word cross-platform. Soon thereafter they get greedy and fire up Mozilla - or some other browser - on Linux, mind you. They'll try their home banking system and when it breaks, suddenly, they'll wonder why. When they ask around I hope someone will be able to teach them about the advantages of open standards. Their teachers preferably!
z