Uncompressing files is a mess in Linux. Gzip won't look inside the file to automagically figure out what kind of compression was used. And gzip won't even try to uncompress unless the file has a certain extension.
Using WinZip under Windoze is unacceptable, but unlike linux zipping tools, it actually works.
AFAIK, the fear of getting caught without a license does not stop most US drunk drivers from driving. But at least you can be caught.
Forbidden from using computers w/out approval? Move the computer to your neighbor's house, use your wife's slashdot account and email box, and welcome back online. How could they possibly know? I won't tell anybody!
Remember about 10 years ago, when Quattro Pro 4 "infringed" or "did something wrong" (IANAL) by running a competing spreadsheet's macros directly instead of interpreting them? (Lotus 1-2-3 or Excel?) I still remember PC Magazine's take on the situation -- basically, it was unlikely action would be taken against individual users of Quattro Pro 4.
Now, IBM is supposed to have "infringed" by inserting code it didn't have the rights to, and SCO is coming after users (at least the big corps that track purchases and don't want legal hassles).
Ten years ago, AFAIK, it was unthinkable to come after innocent users who didn't know their software "infringed". Now, SCO is making this the entire reason for their existence. SCO's desperation and their sleazy lawyers are a dangerous combination.
P.S. The day SCO dies, I will applaud even louder than the day Qusai and Uday Hussein died.
We've seen articles on slashdot lately about the music industry. Everything the artist needs is a loan against future royalties. Is the interest rate fair? Royalties assume 25% breakage, even though we stopped shipping fragile 1940s vinyl years ago.
As for the MPAA, I read in an accounting journal about 10 years ago that a fixed amount of money is added on to the "cost" of a movie for advertising. But this has NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO with how much is actually spent on promotion.
The MPAA has learned the accounting profession from the RIAA. I wouldn't trust either of their figures, even after a full audit. The reason for setting up the deal a certain way, their estimates and projections, their "costs", I question all of it.
If I did business this way, I could get the same tennis instructor as Martha Stewart (Federal prison). Worse, I could be her doubles partner!
I don't know how the market should decide which musicians or movies do well. But with music payola and only a few good movies, the market really isn't deciding now.
About 10 years ago, I read in an accounting journal that a fixed amount of money is added on to the "cost" of a movie for advertising. But this has NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO with how much is actually spent on promotion. Maybe that's why the "four out of ten" movies didn't recover their investment?
And shouldn't the "toy figurine money" that McDonald's or Burger King pays the studio reduce the cost of advertising, instead of being "merchandising income"? (Remember all that stuff in Mel Brooks' "SPACEBALLS"?)
Speaking as an accountant, changing your outlook (and a few numbers) can do wonders for your books (but outside of Hollywood or Washington, D.C. this could lead to a jail term).
...I believe the tax has existed since 1933 or 1934, but only appeared on the income tax form since 1999.
I thought the state was forbidden to enforce it by an old court ruling. Just a line on the income tax form for honest people to use, since there was probably no other form to report it on.
Ohio's budget deficit could reach $4 billion/year this year or next. If inter-state enforcement were viable, "Uncle Bob" Taft and the legislature might pass a bill creating enforcement ability in a "New York minute". After all, US Federal Income Tax was once illegal, until the US Constitution was amended.
I don't want to sound pessimistic, but as/. readers know, "Big Brother" is already here.
Here in Ohio (midwestern USA) the state is also keeping the DNA of the innocent/exhonorated.
Fortunately, here in Hamilton County, officials refuse to give innocents' DNA to the state database.
Many hope for a test case, which may force (a) Ohio, or preferably (b) all the states in this Federal Court Circuit, to destroy the samples.
Slashdot Mirror
Uncompressing files is a mess in Linux. Gzip won't look inside the file to automagically figure out what kind of compression was used. And gzip won't even try to uncompress unless the file has a certain extension.
Using WinZip under Windoze is unacceptable, but unlike linux zipping tools, it actually works.
And isn't this unenforcable? A paper tiger?
AFAIK, the fear of getting caught without a license does not stop most US drunk drivers from driving. But at least you can be caught.
Forbidden from using computers w/out approval? Move the computer to your neighbor's house, use your wife's slashdot account and email box, and welcome back online. How could they possibly know? I won't tell anybody!
Petaflops? Mike Farrell is going to have a cow!
Remember about 10 years ago, when Quattro Pro 4 "infringed" or "did something wrong" (IANAL) by running a competing spreadsheet's macros directly instead of interpreting them? (Lotus 1-2-3 or Excel?) I still remember PC Magazine's take on the situation -- basically, it was unlikely action would be taken against individual users of Quattro Pro 4.
Now, IBM is supposed to have "infringed" by inserting code it didn't have the rights to, and SCO is coming after users (at least the big corps that track purchases and don't want legal hassles).
Ten years ago, AFAIK, it was unthinkable to come after innocent users who didn't know their software "infringed". Now, SCO is making this the entire reason for their existence. SCO's desperation and their sleazy lawyers are a dangerous combination.
P.S. The day SCO dies, I will applaud even louder than the day Qusai and Uday Hussein died.
It's the accounting.
We've seen articles on slashdot lately about the music industry. Everything the artist needs is a loan against future royalties. Is the interest rate fair? Royalties assume 25% breakage, even though we stopped shipping fragile 1940s vinyl years ago.
As for the MPAA, I read in an accounting journal about 10 years ago that a fixed amount of money is added on to the "cost" of a movie for advertising. But this has NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO with how much is actually spent on promotion.
The MPAA has learned the accounting profession from the RIAA. I wouldn't trust either of their figures, even after a full audit. The reason for setting up the deal a certain way, their estimates and projections, their "costs", I question all of it.
If I did business this way, I could get the same tennis instructor as Martha Stewart (Federal prison). Worse, I could be her doubles partner!
I don't know how the market should decide which musicians or movies do well. But with music payola and only a few good movies, the market really isn't deciding now.
Piracy is wrong. Now for my comment:
About 10 years ago, I read in an accounting journal that a fixed amount of money is added on to the "cost" of a movie for advertising. But this has NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO with how much is actually spent on promotion. Maybe that's why the "four out of ten" movies didn't recover their investment?
And shouldn't the "toy figurine money" that McDonald's or Burger King pays the studio reduce the cost of advertising, instead of being "merchandising income"? (Remember all that stuff in Mel Brooks' "SPACEBALLS"?)
Speaking as an accountant, changing your outlook (and a few numbers) can do wonders for your books (but outside of Hollywood or Washington, D.C. this could lead to a jail term).
...I believe the tax has existed since 1933 or 1934, but only appeared on the income tax form since 1999. I thought the state was forbidden to enforce it by an old court ruling. Just a line on the income tax form for honest people to use, since there was probably no other form to report it on. Ohio's budget deficit could reach $4 billion/year this year or next. If inter-state enforcement were viable, "Uncle Bob" Taft and the legislature might pass a bill creating enforcement ability in a "New York minute". After all, US Federal Income Tax was once illegal, until the US Constitution was amended. I don't want to sound pessimistic, but as /. readers know, "Big Brother" is already here.
Here in Ohio (midwestern USA) the state is also keeping the DNA of the innocent/exhonorated. Fortunately, here in Hamilton County, officials refuse to give innocents' DNA to the state database. Many hope for a test case, which may force (a) Ohio, or preferably (b) all the states in this Federal Court Circuit, to destroy the samples.