It already is open source! Just google for "Windows 2000 Source Code", you'll find big zip files of it floating around. I think the license is GPL3 -- feel free to use and redistrubute as you wish, integrate into other open source projects, etc.
I shudder at the thought of having botnets take hold of vulneratble machines sitting on 100 Mbit/s pipes.
Too late for that. Other countries have decent home internet speeds you know.. Not to mention US Universities with 100 Mbit or better dorm connections. Scanning bots for years have selectively gone after university address spaces and fast cable lines to get the best bang for their scans.
tl;dr
If you go to her name dot net the video is a virus.
You don't need to post cliffnotes summaries of your slashdot posts, or any other writing for that matter. If an ADHD Windows-using teenage reader is too jacked up on Mountain Dew to read the three concise sentences you wrote, too bad for him, let him run the virus-video.
Here is TWC's terms of service for residential cable. Although I didn't see any clause specifically stating that TWC has the right to unilaterally cancel your service for e.g. using too much bandwidth, it does say "TWC has the right to add to, modify, or delete any term of this Agreement". Surprisingly, they do say that they'll compensate you for interrupted service: "TWC will give me a prorated credit for the period of such interruption".
Beyond such compensation, you're exceedingly unlikely to win any judgment against them for lost or canceled service, especially since the TOS stipulates binding arbitration to resolve any disputes. You can imagine who typically wins in these arbitrations.
Also, is it that they are able to somehow do these schemes in a way that skirts the laws against them? Is there a 'legal' way to set one of these up?
You might be surprised, but there are many long-running Ponzi schemes skirting the law and brazenly operating in the open. Some of them are exceptionally clever. Example: Vector Marketing (do some googling of the company if you don't believe me) The basic idea of Vector is they're flushing out as much money as they can from the friends and families of their "workers" who are paid very little to sell overpriced crap to the same friends and family. If you're "successful", you get to start your own affiliate, and recruit more people to join the scheme... and so it goes. Vector was taking in several hundreds of million dollars per year last I checked. They call themselves "Multi-Level Marketing", and there are dozens of copycats.
Take a look at the charges levied against Madoff. Mail fraud, wire fraud, false statements, perjury... basically he was charged with lying to investors, in various forms. If you're upfront about what you're doing, and have plausible deniability (i.e. "We're really selling these great, expensive knives, not milking suckers!") you can get away with a lot.
P.S. I in no way condone the actions of any of these fraudsters, and neither should you. They are scum, sucking hard-earned dollars out of people too dumb to know better. I just wanted to illustrate how they operate. Avoid these crooks and other similar MLM scams.
Anti-Slashcode text:
had a very accurate perception of what was good for herself. So, she appropriated the greater part of the weekly stipend to her own use, and consigned the rising parochial generation to even a shorter allowance than was originally provided for them.
What's truly sad about Monster Cable's bullying is that even after getting duly bitchslapped back into reality by Kurt Denke of Blue Jeans Cable, they apparently still haven't learned the slightest thing about trademark protection. In fact, the opposite seems to be true, to the detriment of numerous small (and some large) businesses.
I know no one reads the fine articles but does no one really watch the fine videos? Or does everyone here have Silverlight install?
Would someone be kind enough to post up a non-Silverlight version. Bonus points for a direct link to an open video format (i.e. not flash), but I'm not picky.
Even worse, Psyco is
32-bit only : Psyco does not support the 64-bit x86 architecture, unless you have a Python compiled in 32-bit compatibility mode. There are no plans to port Psyco to 64-bit architectures. This
However , as far as "requires addition coding", I think you're a little off-base.. unless you consider "import psyco" to be a lot of work.
And as I mentioned, you don't need to get the whole page, just check the headers. This task would also parallelize perfectly... A few dozen people splitting the task between them could probably do it in under an hour
LOL. I take it you've never actually tried to write or run a web crawler before? It's a fun exercise.. try it sometime.
I haven't tried it yet myself -- I think the prime opportunities for credit card arbitrage are mostly passed. In order for it to work, you need:
A checking account/savings account/CD with a suitably high (preferably 5% to 6%) interest rate on a large amount of money.
A very high credit limit, that you don't need to use for anything other than this arbitrage
A good credit score, and not mind taking a temporary hit to your credit as your debt to credit ratio temporarily balloons while you have the loan outstanding.
For item 1.), this is getting tricky -- there are a few checking/savings accounts yielding 5% to 6%, though there's always the danger the yields will be driven down at any moment. Best deal I've seen is United FCU's 6% guaranteed until 2010.
For item 2.) I've noticed a drying of credit from credit card companies lately, though if you already have built up a huge credit limit, you may be in luck. You also, of course, need an attractive 0% cash advance or balance transfer offer from the credit card company with no hidden fees. Sometimes, they'll charge you 4% up front for any cash advance. They'll also apply any payment you send to the lowest interest rate loan you have outstanding -- so you basically can't use the card for any other substantial purchases while your large loan is outstanding.
For item 3.), you just need to be aware you'll take a credit score hit for the year or however long you have the loan outstanding. Not a huge deal, *unless* you're planning on buying a house or car on credit in the next year or so.
Where is it, again, that I can put blow on my credit card?
Glad I could help. On a serious note, if you're the sharp type and good at reading fine print, you can occasionally make money with "credit card arbitrage" by taking advantage of 0% APR balance transfer options. Not for the faint of heart, of course. Or you can take advantage of the US Mint's offers to sell dollar coins at face value with free shipping to skim credit card rewards points.
You just admitted to comitting a Federal crime, son, and a Felony at that.
Mail fraud? Pssh. That's small potatoes. Back in my wilder days, I once kept the NYPD busy with various bomb threats, including a real bomb set off in a subway station near the NY Fed.
While the police were on a wild goose chase, my team of vaguely Germanic-sounding villains drove a dozen stolen dump trucks into the basement of the bullion repository in the basement of the Federal Reserve, loaded them up, and drove away with over $100 Billion worth of gold. How's that for admitting a felony online?
how did you determine this without getting nailed yourself? I understand how to view the source code, but...
Download original link: wget -O sturly.html http://sturly.com/[OP's malicious link removed]
Look at source code for sturly.html in your favorite text editor. See the link to http://www.on.[domain removed].org/dragonslair.html , near the text that says "This short url redirects to.."
Download the URL redirect with wget: wget -O dragonslair.html http://www.on.[domain removed].org/dragonslair.html
Open dragonslair.html in your text editor. See the "irc://" links? Those are attempting to automatically launch the user's IRC client and connect to troll channels. The news:// links attempt to open the user's Usenet browser and open some troll newsgroups. The mailto: links attempt to open a mail client and compose a message to a garbage troll address. A telnet and rlogin window also look to be opened, along with AIM windows (the aim: address) and the ed2k:// link links to a specific md5 on the ed2k network, some stupid troll movie I gather.
I haven't bothered mucking with the Javascript source code, but I wouldn't be surprised if the web page tried to open all these links many times repeatedly, instead of just once. In other words, an annoying DOS on your computer (you'd have a ton of email, AIM, edonkey, etc. windows automatically launched).
There's even a comment in the page, above an
<object> tag that gives away: <!-- This object plays the "hey everybody, I'm watching gay porno!" sound --> Usually, malicious pages aren't so obvious about what the annoying/malicious behaviour is doing -- usually you have to wade through a whole shit-ton of javascript obfuscation just to see what the javascript code actually is.. and even the "plain" code has been run through an obfuscator stripping down variable and function names (similar to e.g. Google's javascript, if you look at it). So it's particularly easy to see what this page is doing.
For our next lesson, we'll discuss how to analyze obfuscated malicious Javascript using WinXP+IE6 running safely in a VM. Tune in next week, kids. And remember, friends don't let friends run Windows on the bare metal.
Wow. That blows my mind, but you're totally right. It looks like MSFT acquired Interix back in '99.. I wonder if they realized the GPL implications at the time, or if they were simply caught up in a purchasing spree.
A warranty disclaimer is different from an EULA, although they're often bundled together.
You are correct that warranty disclaimers are different than EULAs in general; however, in Microsoft's case, they are merely explicitly stating the lack of warranty inside the EULA. The GPL happens to have a similar clause: THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW
However, note that Microsoft goes much further in their EULA regarding the liability limitation disclaimer. See Section 18 of the Windows XP Home EULA:
... the entire liability of Microsoft and any of its suppliers... shall be limited to the greater of the actual damages you incur in reasonable reliance on the Software up to the amount actually paid by you for the Software or US$5.00...
Microsoft is basically claiming that no matter what happens, the most they're liable for is $5 per user. Hardly worth the cost of a lawsuit.
Microsoft could always grab Icecat and use that instead.
Debian's branch of Firefox is Iceweasel, not "Icecat". Also, Microsoft could indeed redistribute Iceweasel without permission from Mozilla, just as Debian does, provided they offer the source to Iceweasel as well, as the GPL mandates -- just as Debian does.
Redistributing Opera would of course be trickier, since it's not GPL. And without the GPL, random parties don't have the right to redistribute your software without permission. It'll actually be interesting to see how Microsoft implements this forced choice. My guess is, either redistribution agreements with proprietary players like Opera or stick with some kind of auto-download of a browser of the user's choice (via ftp, e.g.) directly from Mozilla, Opera, Apple, or whomever. It'll be a cold day in hell before Microsoft distributes Iceweasel under the GPL, and provides the source themselves.
This by itself is fraught with all sorts of potential issues, but the biggest problem is probably one of liability. As I pointed out in one of the previous umpteen discussions about this, liability is a very serious matter to a commercial software company like Microsoft.
LOL. I take it you've never actually glanced at the Windows EULA, or any commercial software EULA for that matter? In case you'd like a refresher, see the Windows XP Home EULA. Look for sections that talk about liability. I won't paste that crud here, but read Sec. 16 ("DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES") , Sec. 17 ("17. EXCLUSION OF INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL AND CERTAIN OTHER DAMAGES") and Sec. 18 ("LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AND REMEDIES") to educate yourself.
In simplified terms, they say that even if Steve Ballmer breaks into your house and kills your cat, the most you could hope for would be a refund on your Windows tax. And even that is doubtful. And don't hope that any US Court is sane enough to ignore post-purchase EULAs. They're not -- see Pro CD v. Zeidenberg.
First, how the fuck is my blood not a part of me, and therefore not protected by the Fifth Amendment?
It's a scary world we live in. Don't trust the Constitution (e.g. 5th amendment guarantee against self-incrimination) to be interpreted in anything resembling a sane manner by modern courts. Unfortunately, all you can do is educate yourself and be prepared for the inevitable travesty of justice you'll encounter if you ever have the misfortune of being entwined in criminal proceedings.
First off, depending on what state you're pulled over in, the consequences of refusing the test are worse than your first dui arrest. Second, prosecutors are now using the fact that you refused the test against you as proof that you were intoxicated. If you have no had prior DUI arrests, you should almost always take the test.
I recommend everyone at least determine beforehand how they will react when pulled over by police for suspicion of drunk driving. On the spot decisions are hard to make when an Officer is shining his flashlight in your face. State law varies, but check out "The Criminal Law Handbook" 10th ed., p. 536, under What Will Happen to me if I refuse to take a blood alcohol test. Amazon Page Link.
Some relevant snippets (typing by hand.. forgive my snipping and mistakes. Emphasis is mine):
In many states, the law assumes that as a condition of obtaining a driver's license, drivers consent to alcohol or drug testing... Such laws are called "implied consent" laws... failure to cooperate typically results in the loss of driving privileges for a specified amount of time, regardless of what happens in the underlying DUI case. Often, a license suspension for failure to take the test is as long as (or longer than) what results from a DUI conviction (to eliminate any incentive not to take the test). In addition, a refusal may increase a defendant's ultimate jail time if that defendant is convicted.... Activities like giving blood and performing field sobriety tests are considered nontestimonial, and there is no constitutional right to refuse them. And evidence that a defendant refused the test can be admitted against the defendant in court as evidence of a guilty state of mind. ... Almost always, if a driver has never before been convicted of DUI, it makes sense to take the test, even if the defendant is drunk. However, for second or subsequent offenses, the decision is not quite so simple. Sometimes the penalty for a second offense may be so severe that it makes tactical sense to refuse the test
Myself, I think, for a first offense, I'd probably just insist on a blood test. Your average ER is so backed up, who knows how long it would take them to give you a blood test for DUI when people in the waiting room are literally dying. IANAL and this is not legal advice.
... I think the only thing you missed was wars/empire, education, and immigration, but a good job anyway."
What the hell are you talking about??!?!? Random babble?
My apologies cayenne8, that was one of my bots. I'm experimenting with a steganographic method for hiding encrypted, redundant information with parity blocks in automatically generated forum posts on popular websites including Slashdot. Obviously, my chatbot core still needs some work, but they usually blend in with the Slashdot crowd more subtly than bot zappepcs. Sorry about that.
And SUN can always roll the communities code into its version. Without cost I might add. So what's the beef?
Not quite. SUN *could* snap up patches from the community that are floating around under the GPL -- but then SUN wouldn't own copyrights to all the code in MySQL (the individual authors whose code they snapped up would retain copyright over the snippets they had written).
This is why SUN's Contributor Agreement explicity states that the contributor must assign copyrights to SUN (you hereby assign to us joint ownership...). SUN wants to retain copyright (or at least joint licensing) to the entirety of the MySQL codebase so that they can sell closed source forks to companies wishing to release a product with MySQL embedded, without having to GPL their whole product, or any part thereof. IANAL.
Googling the phrase "drive off the lot"... Still, do you really think that there is that much mechanical wear associated with driving 500 feet?
While we're encouraging each other to google, I suggest you start with the phrase "information asymmetry", possibly along with "used car market" or "market for lemons".
Cars lose a substantial portion of their value when one drives them off the lot in large part due to the uncertainty ("information asymmetry" as economists call it) in the used car market. If you were to try to sell a car with 500 feet on it on Craigslist, you'd probably be hearing "So.. what exactly is wrong with it" from many suspicious potential buyers. Buyers would assume that, because you were dumping the car so soon, that there must be something wrong with it.
Slashdot Mirror
It already is open source! Just google for "Windows 2000 Source Code", you'll find big zip files of it floating around. I think the license is GPL3 -- feel free to use and redistrubute as you wish, integrate into other open source projects, etc.
Too late for that. Other countries have decent home internet speeds you know.. Not to mention US Universities with 100 Mbit or better dorm connections. Scanning bots for years have selectively gone after university address spaces and fast cable lines to get the best bang for their scans.
YouWastefulFool! NeverLeaveSlackInTheCablesItIntroducesNanosecond OrWorseTransmissionTimeDelaysAsWellAsIncreasingTheTransmitErrorRate! ThoseNanosecondsQuicklyAddUp!TakeALookAtMeForInspirationOnHowToLiveLifeEfficiently!IDon'tEvenPauseForSpaces! HaveToGoNowTimeForAnotherRedbullAndPotOfCoffee!
You don't need to post cliffnotes summaries of your slashdot posts, or any other writing for that matter. If an ADHD Windows-using teenage reader is too jacked up on Mountain Dew to read the three concise sentences you wrote, too bad for him, let him run the virus-video.
Here is TWC's terms of service for residential cable. Although I didn't see any clause specifically stating that TWC has the right to unilaterally cancel your service for e.g. using too much bandwidth, it does say "TWC has the right to add to, modify, or delete any term of this Agreement". Surprisingly, they do say that they'll compensate you for interrupted service: "TWC will give me a prorated credit for the period of such interruption".
Beyond such compensation, you're exceedingly unlikely to win any judgment against them for lost or canceled service, especially since the TOS stipulates binding arbitration to resolve any disputes. You can imagine who typically wins in these arbitrations.
You might be surprised, but there are many long-running Ponzi schemes skirting the law and brazenly operating in the open. Some of them are exceptionally clever. Example: Vector Marketing (do some googling of the company if you don't believe me) The basic idea of Vector is they're flushing out as much money as they can from the friends and families of their "workers" who are paid very little to sell overpriced crap to the same friends and family. If you're "successful", you get to start your own affiliate, and recruit more people to join the scheme... and so it goes. Vector was taking in several hundreds of million dollars per year last I checked. They call themselves "Multi-Level Marketing", and there are dozens of copycats.
Take a look at the charges levied against Madoff. Mail fraud, wire fraud, false statements, perjury... basically he was charged with lying to investors, in various forms. If you're upfront about what you're doing, and have plausible deniability (i.e. "We're really selling these great, expensive knives, not milking suckers!") you can get away with a lot.
P.S. I in no way condone the actions of any of these fraudsters, and neither should you. They are scum, sucking hard-earned dollars out of people too dumb to know better. I just wanted to illustrate how they operate. Avoid these crooks and other similar MLM scams.
Note from Bot #1536: Moderators, please mod to +5 so that all bots see this post.
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Anti-Slashcode text: had a very accurate perception of what was good for herself. So, she appropriated the greater part of the weekly stipend to her own use, and consigned the rising parochial generation to even a shorter allowance than was originally provided for them.
What's truly sad about Monster Cable's bullying is that even after getting duly bitchslapped back into reality by Kurt Denke of Blue Jeans Cable, they apparently still haven't learned the slightest thing about trademark protection. In fact, the opposite seems to be true, to the detriment of numerous small (and some large) businesses.
(Somewhat OT, sorry)
I know no one reads the fine articles but does no one really watch the fine videos? Or does everyone here have Silverlight install?
Would someone be kind enough to post up a non-Silverlight version. Bonus points for a direct link to an open video format (i.e. not flash), but I'm not picky.
Even worse, Psyco is 32-bit only : Psyco does not support the 64-bit x86 architecture, unless you have a Python compiled in 32-bit compatibility mode. There are no plans to port Psyco to 64-bit architectures. This
However , as far as "requires addition coding", I think you're a little off-base.. unless you consider "import psyco" to be a lot of work.
LOL. I take it you've never actually tried to write or run a web crawler before? It's a fun exercise.. try it sometime.
I haven't tried it yet myself -- I think the prime opportunities for credit card arbitrage are mostly passed. In order for it to work, you need:
For item 1.), this is getting tricky -- there are a few checking/savings accounts yielding 5% to 6%, though there's always the danger the yields will be driven down at any moment. Best deal I've seen is United FCU's 6% guaranteed until 2010.
For item 2.) I've noticed a drying of credit from credit card companies lately, though if you already have built up a huge credit limit, you may be in luck. You also, of course, need an attractive 0% cash advance or balance transfer offer from the credit card company with no hidden fees. Sometimes, they'll charge you 4% up front for any cash advance. They'll also apply any payment you send to the lowest interest rate loan you have outstanding -- so you basically can't use the card for any other substantial purchases while your large loan is outstanding.
For item 3.), you just need to be aware you'll take a credit score hit for the year or however long you have the loan outstanding. Not a huge deal, *unless* you're planning on buying a house or car on credit in the next year or so.
Glad I could help. On a serious note, if you're the sharp type and good at reading fine print, you can occasionally make money with "credit card arbitrage" by taking advantage of 0% APR balance transfer options. Not for the faint of heart, of course. Or you can take advantage of the US Mint's offers to sell dollar coins at face value with free shipping to skim credit card rewards points.
Mail fraud? Pssh. That's small potatoes. Back in my wilder days, I once kept the NYPD busy with various bomb threats, including a real bomb set off in a subway station near the NY Fed.
While the police were on a wild goose chase, my team of vaguely Germanic-sounding villains drove a dozen stolen dump trucks into the basement of the bullion repository in the basement of the Federal Reserve, loaded them up, and drove away with over $100 Billion worth of gold. How's that for admitting a felony online?
Open dragonslair.html in your text editor. See the "irc://" links? Those are attempting to automatically launch the user's IRC client and connect to troll channels. The news:// links attempt to open the user's Usenet browser and open some troll newsgroups. The mailto: links attempt to open a mail client and compose a message to a garbage troll address. A telnet and rlogin window also look to be opened, along with AIM windows (the aim: address) and the ed2k:// link links to a specific md5 on the ed2k network, some stupid troll movie I gather.
I haven't bothered mucking with the Javascript source code, but I wouldn't be surprised if the web page tried to open all these links many times repeatedly, instead of just once. In other words, an annoying DOS on your computer (you'd have a ton of email, AIM, edonkey, etc. windows automatically launched).
There's even a comment in the page, above an <object> tag that gives away: <!-- This object plays the "hey everybody, I'm watching gay porno!" sound --> Usually, malicious pages aren't so obvious about what the annoying/malicious behaviour is doing -- usually you have to wade through a whole shit-ton of javascript obfuscation just to see what the javascript code actually is.. and even the "plain" code has been run through an obfuscator stripping down variable and function names (similar to e.g. Google's javascript, if you look at it). So it's particularly easy to see what this page is doing.
For our next lesson, we'll discuss how to analyze obfuscated malicious Javascript using WinXP+IE6 running safely in a VM. Tune in next week, kids. And remember, friends don't let friends run Windows on the bare metal.
Wow. That blows my mind, but you're totally right. It looks like MSFT acquired Interix back in '99.. I wonder if they realized the GPL implications at the time, or if they were simply caught up in a purchasing spree.
You are correct that warranty disclaimers are different than EULAs in general; however, in Microsoft's case, they are merely explicitly stating the lack of warranty inside the EULA. The GPL happens to have a similar clause: THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW
However, note that Microsoft goes much further in their EULA regarding the liability limitation disclaimer. See Section 18 of the Windows XP Home EULA:
Microsoft is basically claiming that no matter what happens, the most they're liable for is $5 per user. Hardly worth the cost of a lawsuit.
Debian's branch of Firefox is Iceweasel, not "Icecat". Also, Microsoft could indeed redistribute Iceweasel without permission from Mozilla, just as Debian does, provided they offer the source to Iceweasel as well, as the GPL mandates -- just as Debian does.
Redistributing Opera would of course be trickier, since it's not GPL. And without the GPL, random parties don't have the right to redistribute your software without permission. It'll actually be interesting to see how Microsoft implements this forced choice. My guess is, either redistribution agreements with proprietary players like Opera or stick with some kind of auto-download of a browser of the user's choice (via ftp, e.g.) directly from Mozilla, Opera, Apple, or whomever. It'll be a cold day in hell before Microsoft distributes Iceweasel under the GPL, and provides the source themselves.
LOL. I take it you've never actually glanced at the Windows EULA, or any commercial software EULA for that matter? In case you'd like a refresher, see the Windows XP Home EULA. Look for sections that talk about liability. I won't paste that crud here, but read Sec. 16 ("DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES") , Sec. 17 ("17. EXCLUSION OF INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL AND CERTAIN OTHER DAMAGES") and Sec. 18 ("LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AND REMEDIES") to educate yourself.
In simplified terms, they say that even if Steve Ballmer breaks into your house and kills your cat, the most you could hope for would be a refund on your Windows tax. And even that is doubtful. And don't hope that any US Court is sane enough to ignore post-purchase EULAs. They're not -- see Pro CD v. Zeidenberg.
Whew. What a relief.. "separation of powers". Interesting idea. Too bad Bush never heard about it. Don't take my word for it, listen to the ABA itself: Blue-Ribbon Task Force Finds President Bush's Signing Statements Undermine Separation of Power
It's a scary world we live in. Don't trust the Constitution (e.g. 5th amendment guarantee against self-incrimination) to be interpreted in anything resembling a sane manner by modern courts. Unfortunately, all you can do is educate yourself and be prepared for the inevitable travesty of justice you'll encounter if you ever have the misfortune of being entwined in criminal proceedings.
I recommend everyone at least determine beforehand how they will react when pulled over by police for suspicion of drunk driving. On the spot decisions are hard to make when an Officer is shining his flashlight in your face. State law varies, but check out "The Criminal Law Handbook" 10th ed., p. 536, under What Will Happen to me if I refuse to take a blood alcohol test. Amazon Page Link.
Some relevant snippets (typing by hand.. forgive my snipping and mistakes. Emphasis is mine):
Myself, I think, for a first offense, I'd probably just insist on a blood test. Your average ER is so backed up, who knows how long it would take them to give you a blood test for DUI when people in the waiting room are literally dying. IANAL and this is not legal advice.
My apologies cayenne8, that was one of my bots. I'm experimenting with a steganographic method for hiding encrypted, redundant information with parity blocks in automatically generated forum posts on popular websites including Slashdot. Obviously, my chatbot core still needs some work, but they usually blend in with the Slashdot crowd more subtly than bot zappepcs. Sorry about that.
Not quite. SUN *could* snap up patches from the community that are floating around under the GPL -- but then SUN wouldn't own copyrights to all the code in MySQL (the individual authors whose code they snapped up would retain copyright over the snippets they had written).
This is why SUN's Contributor Agreement explicity states that the contributor must assign copyrights to SUN (you hereby assign to us joint ownership...). SUN wants to retain copyright (or at least joint licensing) to the entirety of the MySQL codebase so that they can sell closed source forks to companies wishing to release a product with MySQL embedded, without having to GPL their whole product, or any part thereof. IANAL.
While we're encouraging each other to google, I suggest you start with the phrase "information asymmetry", possibly along with "used car market" or "market for lemons".
Cars lose a substantial portion of their value when one drives them off the lot in large part due to the uncertainty ("information asymmetry" as economists call it) in the used car market. If you were to try to sell a car with 500 feet on it on Craigslist, you'd probably be hearing "So.. what exactly is wrong with it" from many suspicious potential buyers. Buyers would assume that, because you were dumping the car so soon, that there must be something wrong with it.