What about standards that are incorporated into laws?
In the case stated, it seems obvious that the organisation itself promoted the adoption of the standard into law, and was then surprised and upset by the result (loss of copyright).
But what about the situation where someone else promotes the adoption of a standard as law?
How would the state compensate the authors of the standard?
In the UK, we have the BSI, which is responsible for the authoring of standards in all sorts of areas, and then we have laws (such as the Building Regulations), which explicitly refer to those standards. The BSI sells the standards documents, and so far as I know it is still an infringement of the BSI's copyright to publish those standards in the public domain.
This has been an accepted fact in the UK for at least 25 years (as long as I have been working and aware of the legislation), and doesn't seem to arouse a great deal of passion.
I'm sure some smartarse will come up with the idea of using this legal argument in the UK, and publishing (and selling) the standards information in competition with the BSI.
This would only be fair if the publisher themselves had the overhead of generating the standards to begin with.
I'm ambivalent about this decision - yes, laws are public domain, but to deprive organisations that exist for the public good of income is surely bad.
Last time I looked, DOHC stood for 'Double Overhead Cam', so I'm not surprised that people aren't aware of a 'Dual' version. Not sure how long Ford have been making DOHC engines, but ALfa-Romeo had one in 1927.
Say it once, if they persist then say it again, then put the phone down.
All that means is that you have given the 'telemarketer' a polite peply, nothing to make a tape of, and if they persist, they're not deserving of politeness anyway.
I wasn't aware of telemarketers splicing tapes - perhaps this particular nastiness hasn't reached this side of the Atlantic yet.
I do, on the other hand, tell door-to-door salesmen to fuck off, as that is a much more personal intrusion.
Reminds me of the period in the late 19th century when Standard Oil paid no dividends (it was such a poor company) until Rockefeller finally got full control, and the tax regime was right, so Rockefeller sucked huge amounts of capital out before the anti-trust case.
Bill's waited antil after the anti-trust case, but since he's ignoring it anyway, he's not likely to give a shit.
Good move, Bill - you are now, officially, a Robber Baron
You just gotta love anyone that uses 'Bert and Ernie' for the font names.
I'm surprised Big Bird never got a look in.
Seriously, though, If Microsoft want to market a crippled general purpose computing device, I'm not surprised that people are going to want to hack it just for the hell of it.
Good luck to the guys, and a big up to the Sesame Street gang.
Yeah - it's a bit wooden, but it was obviously intellegible, since you managed to produce a better translation without ever reading the original Welsh!
I move my hand to the left, the car goes to the left
Who taught you to drive? If your hands are in the correct position on the wheel, then it's (in a LHD car) - if I move my hand down, the car goes to the left.
I guess you're not in the UK, so you've never had a moment when you're so busy laughing at I'm sorry I haven't a clue that you've nearly driven off the road.
All of Radio 4 is dangerous, but Humphrey Lyttleton is deadly.
She shouldn't be on the road, even without a cellphone. Without one, she would have been looking in the rearview, doing her makeup when she hit you.
Now you're either being sexist (bad, because I know lots of pretty OK women drivers), or anti-SUV drivers (good, because they tend to be bad drivers with low self-confidence and correspondingly low skill).
SUVs are the bane of the road-users life. They are uniformly badly driven, can't corner properly, and you have to poke your nose round the side to see enough to overtake.
SUV drivers are inadequates who think that (big == safe), who can't use mirrors to check behind themselves when they overtake, and who seem to think that having a big lump of metal entitles them to change lanes whenever they like.
Let's ban SUVs, and sterilise SUV drivers to stop them breeding. A test (do you neecd to spend a significant portion of most of your journeys off-road, or on unmade roads) should be applied before a person is allowed to drive a SUV, and extra driving lessons provided to teach the owner how to corner, and how not to drive at slow speed on the crown of the road. Not cutting corners on country roads when you're being overtaken would also be a good thing for them to learn.
Come on, making something that is not a direct infringement on another person illegal is what should be illegal
I think being hit by a car driven by someone who's distracted by a mobile call counts as infringement, don't you?
I regularly drive long distances as part of my work.
If someone calls, and it requires more than a couple of seconds of attention, I tell them I'll call them back when I've found a safe place to stop. And that's with a hands-free kit.
I do this because it's the right thing to do - I am by no means a meek and mild driver, but I am a safe driver.
Slashdot Mirror
In the case stated, it seems obvious that the organisation itself promoted the adoption of the standard into law, and was then surprised and upset by the result (loss of copyright).
But what about the situation where someone else promotes the adoption of a standard as law?
How would the state compensate the authors of the standard?
In the UK, we have the BSI, which is responsible for the authoring of standards in all sorts of areas, and then we have laws (such as the Building Regulations), which explicitly refer to those standards. The BSI sells the standards documents, and so far as I know it is still an infringement of the BSI's copyright to publish those standards in the public domain.
This has been an accepted fact in the UK for at least 25 years (as long as I have been working and aware of the legislation), and doesn't seem to arouse a great deal of passion.
I'm sure some smartarse will come up with the idea of using this legal argument in the UK, and publishing (and selling) the standards information in competition with the BSI.
This would only be fair if the publisher themselves had the overhead of generating the standards to begin with.
I'm ambivalent about this decision - yes, laws are public domain, but to deprive organisations that exist for the public good of income is surely bad.
I can't believe that this is actually in the act.
Unless Billy Clinton put it in by presidential decree, that is.
Perhaps you missed a paragraph break between the act and your comment?
Just so long as you only need to run one Java process, that is...
I thought Gibson was the descendant of Lovecraft...
Last time I looked, DOHC stood for 'Double Overhead Cam', so I'm not surprised that people aren't aware of a 'Dual' version. Not sure how long Ford have been making DOHC engines, but ALfa-Romeo had one in 1927.
They probably need as many hosting sites as possible, preferably where they can set up relays for their own use.
Say it once, if they persist then say it again, then put the phone down.
All that means is that you have given the 'telemarketer' a polite peply, nothing to make a tape of, and if they persist, they're not deserving of politeness anyway.
I wasn't aware of telemarketers splicing tapes - perhaps this particular nastiness hasn't reached this side of the Atlantic yet.
I do, on the other hand, tell door-to-door salesmen to fuck off, as that is a much more personal intrusion.
Addictions talk to us - they tell us about ourselves.
I am an alcoholic.
Apparently, this is an addiction.
This is no more fun than being stoned, but is is how I am supposed to describe myself.
'Iam a wastrel'?, 'I am a total tit'? 'I am wasted'?
All could be true, and aren't.
I am no more an addict than a fat man is a pie addict.
Bill's waited antil after the anti-trust case, but since he's ignoring it anyway, he's not likely to give a shit.
Good move, Bill - you are now, officially, a Robber Baron
Why is it worse?
If you don't give the option to people to do something that (by your own assessment) is stupid, perhaps they'll be less lazy and do things properly.
A spreadsheet is a self-contained application - you can provide entry fields, and recalculate - that should be the limit of it.
I've seen several 'Excel applications', and they all suck.
Horses for courses, and screw the lazy developer.
Besides, at the $3000 launch point for the basic twin proc G5, it's not a lot differnet to a dual processor P4 3GHz.
And no - I'm not a Mac fan. ;P
We don't need no steenking advice!
A particularly good one is here.
I dunno, maybe it's the caffeine or something...
IIRC, this was called 'Total Recall', wasn't it?
Note that the girls always walk off.
I'm surprised Big Bird never got a look in.
Seriously, though, If Microsoft want to market a crippled general purpose computing device, I'm not surprised that people are going to want to hack it just for the hell of it.
Good luck to the guys, and a big up to the Sesame Street gang.
I stopped drinking Fosters after they started brewing it over here.
Now when it came in litre tins, imported from Australia, it was tasty (though not as malty as the XXXX was when it, too, came in tins).
Give me a decent pint of Robinsons Best any day of the week.
I had to get 'connard' in there somewhere ;-)
Who taught you to drive? If your hands are in the correct position on the wheel, then it's (in a LHD car) - if I move my hand down, the car goes to the left.
All of Radio 4 is dangerous, but Humphrey Lyttleton is deadly.
Now you're either being sexist (bad, because I know lots of pretty OK women drivers), or anti-SUV drivers (good, because they tend to be bad drivers with low self-confidence and correspondingly low skill).
SUVs are the bane of the road-users life. They are uniformly badly driven, can't corner properly, and you have to poke your nose round the side to see enough to overtake.
SUV drivers are inadequates who think that (big == safe), who can't use mirrors to check behind themselves when they overtake, and who seem to think that having a big lump of metal entitles them to change lanes whenever they like.
Let's ban SUVs, and sterilise SUV drivers to stop them breeding. A test (do you neecd to spend a significant portion of most of your journeys off-road, or on unmade roads) should be applied before a person is allowed to drive a SUV, and extra driving lessons provided to teach the owner how to corner, and how not to drive at slow speed on the crown of the road. Not cutting corners on country roads when you're being overtaken would also be a good thing for them to learn.
SUVs - I hate 'em.
I think being hit by a car driven by someone who's distracted by a mobile call counts as infringement, don't you?
I regularly drive long distances as part of my work.
If someone calls, and it requires more than a couple of seconds of attention, I tell them I'll call them back when I've found a safe place to stop. And that's with a hands-free kit.
I do this because it's the right thing to do - I am by no means a meek and mild driver, but I am a safe driver.
Scary.