Are you trying to imply that this would make source distribution for the GPL:ed components unnecessary?
I'll hazard a guess here and say that the GPL'd components of the USDTV firmware are the least interesting to the hacker and the most useless now---nothing more than the standard libraries he's seen and used a hundred times before.
If you are going to fight the good fight, make your battles count. The company has gone belly-up, and the code, more likely than not, is going to disappear into the void no matter what you do.
If by some mishap you have bricked your box, connect the appropriate Flash programmer to the JTAG port on the mainboard, and reprogram the flash. Repeat as necessary until the machine boots again.
You have got to be kidding.
I have a Phillips head screwdriver in the kitchen. Will that be any help?
I think it's necessary to have the source code so you could test an install of MythTV.
I think Microsoft may be on to something here, pushing the OEM system install in the home PC market.
Salt Lake City-based USDTV discontinued their service. USDTV used the Hisense DB2010 as subscriber boxes, with Linux based firmware [CC]. USDTV should have released the source and binaries as required by the GPL, in order for customers to create a USB key to convert their DB2010s to FTA HDTV boxes. Instead, they chose to hand the keys to former USDTV subcontractors. Cable Communications [CC] is coming to subscribers' houses and updating the boxes, but not leaving a USB key. ProServ [CC] is selling USB keys. But 'Due to copyright laws you are only allowed to purchase one of these keys if you have proof of being a current or previous subscriber to USDTV.
First question that comes to mind:
How many subscribers would be able to flash the firmware without bricking their box even if they had the source code and binaries?
[it happens, sometimes, even to the geek who is sure he knows what he is doing]
Second question:
Where in the contract does it say that these set top boxes are user-serviceable? If they are not, then the code becomes of intellectual interest only.
Third question:
What makes paying for a USB key differet from paying for a CableCard to access and unlock subscription content and services?
This is similar to the Vista outselling XP story. The truth is, since XP came out the PC market grew by a huge percentage, thus making the Vista sales claim bunk.
The take-off point was Win 95 not XP.
"In the marketplace, Windows 95 was an unqualified success, and within a year or two of its release had become the most successful operating system ever produced." Windows 95
The mid-line consumer PC rated and sold for Vista Premium or Ultimate is a very sophisticated product.
In the same sense that the Blu-Ray disk implies a Blu-Ray player and HDTV and digital cable, satellite or terrestrial broadcast HD service.
If all the core technology and infrastructure needed for Vista - for Blu-Ray - became mass market five years ago - three years ago - six months ago - I would like to know where.
Most people understand that their computer is an extension of their homes
Perhaps, more mundanely, they just think of it another home appliance like the set-top box or the video game console.
XBox Live! is for the XBox owner.
DRM kicks in only when your rights conflict with the rights of others. No one is forcing you load and run a licensed program or media file. Except perhaps your boss - who has his own interests to protect.
Anybody that didn't buy a Vista license would, most likely, have bought an XP license if Vista did not exist.
In other words, they would not be in the market for OSX or Linux.
Vista has not really increased MS revenues. MS must convince the shareholders that the $5bn spent on Vista is going to be a worthwhile investment
Microsoft, debt-free, and with quarterly revenues of $14 billion dollars can afford to take the long view - and the short-term hit from the free upgrade coupons still around for Vista.
"What's important to us from an investment standpoint is that Microsoft has entrenched one of its most important businesses for an additional few years, and that virtually every new computer sold on the planet going forward will have Vista pre-installed on it." Finding Value In Microsoft
Add to that all of the upgrade coupons gleefully thrown away on receipt plus those who were scrubbed and replaced with Linux like my laptop.
give me a break.
in a market that is 95% Windows the guy who does his Christmas shopping at Dell doesn't toss the coupon worth a $150 software upgrade for his new Vista-rated system.
Linux (or the BSD's) can be downloaded off the internet, while Windows requires that you buy a fresh new disk packaged in cardboard and plastic wrap. Clearly if everyone could download software and not use the packaging, that would save a lot of resources.
The Vista DVD is available as a legal download.
The true Geek of course never burns back-up copies of his OS and applications to disk.
Never spends a dime on securing his off-line storage.
Never asks how many resources are consumed in creating and maintaining his 1.5 TB RAID array. Never sees his downloads throttled or a surchage on his account.
The shoebox sized USPS Flat-Rate Box - any weight, any state - costs $8.10. It beasts fiber to the premises if you want to make efficient use of an existing infrastructure.
What ever happened to innocent until proven Guilty. The RIAA should have to prove beyond doubt that you committed the offense before they are even allowed to contact you.
The geek never quite grasps the most basic distinctions between civil and criminal law.
In a civil action it is normal to propose a settlement out of court. Only 1% of the civil cases that enter the federal system go to a verdict. The RIAA only has to show that it is more probable than not that you were an infringer. Despite all the contrived defenses proposed on Slashdot, that is not a particularly difficult burden to bear. The odds are good that you won't be a promising poster child for the EFF and that there will be no help coming from that direction.
There is nothing "criminal" about copyright infringement. Someone can take you to court and sue you, but there is nothing criminal about that. It certainly isn't considered "theft" by the laws of this country: never was, never will be.
Copyright infringement is a crime under American federal law and you can do hard time.
The movie was a watermarked Academy screener easily traced to Nunez's sister - exposing family to professional sanctions and criminal prosecution does not have the look of a victimless crime.
Many college students live off of credit cards and have no time for anything else. Consequently, without neither the time nor the financial resources to defend themselves, they are a vulnerable group
and the solution to the problem of having too much time and not enough money is increasing your exposure on the P2P nets?
as opposed, to say, subscribing to an on-campus music service?
The less money that Microsoft earns, the more there is for everyone else.
Fully half of Apple's revenues can be traced back to iTunes and the iPod. It ain't iTunes on the Mac with its 2% market share world-wide that's delivering those big bucks to Cupertino.
OSX on the x86 platform runs on a sub-set of the hardware which evolved with the commodity PC running Windows. The Linux Geek - if he is honest - also knows that it was the mass-market PC running Windows which transformed the home user from the Geek with the 14K modem to the family with fiber to the premises---and did it all in little more than ten years.
did you also notice that Atkins was a U.S. Supreme Court decision?
During Bush's six years as governor 150 men and two women were executed in Texas--a record unmatched by any other governor in modern American history.The Texas Clemency Memos
Oliver Cruz was the last and it became an issue in the Bush campaign:
Gov. George W. Bush claimed Wednesday that Texas doesn't execute mentally retarded killers, although at least five such convicts have been put to death in recent years.
The comment came as the GOP presidential nominee was campaigning in California, hours before two Texas inmates were executed. One of the inmates, Oliver D. Cruz, was described as mentally retarded, though that conclusion was challenged by prosecutors earlier this week.
Answering news media questions upon his arrival from Texas, Bush indicated that justice was being served with the executions of Cruz and a second inmate, Brian Roberson. But when told that several states have banned the execution of mentally retarded inmates, Bush said, "So do we, in Texas."
However, no ban has been approved by Texas lawmakers, although they tried as recently as 1999. Bush opposed that bill.
Constraints in existing law, which Bush cited as safeguards, failed to prevent the execution of five mentally retarded inmates since 1984 -- six, according to those who argue that Cruz was retarded.
"For anybody tried in the state of Texas, mental capacity is a factor, not only during the trial phase but during the appellate phase," Bush said. "... In all cases, mental competency is a factor in Texas law."
Queried about his opposition to the 1999 bill to ban executions of the retarded, Bush insisted Texas' current law is adequate. And that's the point he was trying to make when he made his controversial remark, an aide said.
"Texas law has many safeguards in place to prevent someone who is not competent from even going to trial, much less being executed," said campaign spokesman Scott McClellan, adding that at least five laws come into play in such cases.
Even if one juror has reasonable doubts about the defendant's mental ability to form the intent to commit a crime, then that person must be acquitted," he noted.
Wednesday night's execution of Cruz drew more than the usual attention on Texas' death chamber, the busiest in the nation. That is in part because of the debate over executing people with mental retardation and because of Bush's bid for the presidency, which has put his positions on crime and punishment under heavy scrutiny.
Bush's discussion with reporters on the topic ended as he headed to a campaign event, and he wasn't immediately available to elaborate. The candidate was making a train tour of portions of California.
Houston Democrat Sen. Rodney Ellis was author of the bill last year that would have banned the execution of inmates with an IQ of 65 or lower. Ellis said in an interview Wednesday that Bush told him at the time, "I think current law is fine."
Although the bill passed the Texas Senate, 22-8, it died in a House committee.
Ellis said he plans to reintroduce the bill next spring to ban the execution of anyone with an IQ of 70 or lower and to make it retroactive to include those on death row now. If passed, Texas would join 12 other states in such bans.
Nationwide, 34 mentally retarded offenders with IQs of 70 or lower have been executed since April 5, 1984, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Of those, five were in Texas, not counting Cruz.
Terry Washington, a 33-year-old black man, was executed during Bush's administration. Another mentally retarded offender, Mario Marquez, was exec
Why do they always insist on beating shows into the ground rather than coming up with something new? Stargate's been old and tired for years... It's like Star Trek all over, the show gets lamer and lamer, but they just keep propping up the corpse for "the fans".
The Enterprise was on a "five year mission" to get enough episodes in the can to become profitable in syndication.
Stargate can get by without expensive F/X. It doesn't have to explain anything.
The gates are ancient, alien, tech that can be worked by anyone. Simple and open-ended. Perfect for the story-teller - Edgar Rice Burroughs was working this ground as early as 1912 - and welcome relief from the techno-babble of Star Trek.
being similar to the way medieval cathedrals were constructed, versus open-source development in which just about anyone can get involved if they want, and that development is closer to the typical bazaars where anyone can walk up and put up a booth to sell rugs
The gothic cathedral was in many ways a communal project that evolved over decades and even centuries. David Macaulay: Cathedral DVD The medieval craft guilds had a very large say in who sold what and where. Medieval Gulds I can't find an anchorage for Raymond's analogy in any historical reality.
Only in America could taking a 10-year-old to court for something she did when she was 7 be considered civil
Think carefully before answering.
You might someday find yourself the plaintiff or defendant in a civil action. The defendant in a criminal action.
The child could make or break your case.
Do you want the right to subpoena her as a witness? To have her testify under oath? Do you want the right of cross-examination?
The courts do not make rules that could deny the RIAA the right to directly question a child. They do make rules that could deny anyone the right to directly question a child.
But that does not necessarily mean the jury won't not get to hear the edited or hearsay version of what the child had to say.
Texas, the state that gave us President George W. Bush, is especially fond of executing the young and mentally handicapped.
Of the 44 mentally retarded in the U.S. executed since 1976, nine were in Texas, five in Virgina, only four were executed in states outside the southern Confederacy in the American Civil War.
There have been 387 executions in Texas since December 1982. The youngest was 24 in 1985. 17 when he killed a clerk for a six-pack of beer in a convenience-store robbery. There has been almost nothing the like of that since. Executed Offenders
It's the entire purpose behind the second amendment.
I would have thought the purpose of the second amendment was to preserve the tradition of a "well -regulated" state militia [an oxymoron if ever there was one] as the alternative to a permanent and professional standing army.
Then you have the Motorola 68000, designed in the late 1970s and used in home computers in the mid 1980s - capable of addressing a whopping 16MB of memory
and the street price for 16 MB of RAM in 1980 would have been...what, exactly?
He owes almost his entire fortune to IBM's failure to deliver on OS/2, and (to be fair) Microsoft's successful delivery of DOS+Windows (crap that it was).
Gates began programming at age thirteen, at age fourteen he is clearing $20,000 in is first partnership with Allen. Microsoft is founded in 1975. Microsoft in in Japan in 1978. In Europe in 1979. In 1980 Microsoft is young, hungry, and moving a hell of lot faster than Kildall.
These days I think many here are underselling linux - people are not complete idiots.
The first problem is that Linux came late to the party.
Your dad bought his first MSDOS PC in 1980. Your kids began with XP at age four in 2001. You need a very compelling reason to switch.
The second problem is that the Geek is blandly incomprehending of the home PC market.
It isn't just games - although Windows gaming remains a billion-dollar industry - and Microsoft in Vista and the XBox 360 is weaving the PC and console gamer ever more closely together.
It isn't just media - but shop around a little and you can find a first generation Blu-Ray drive for Windows for under $600.
This is of course a market segment that rates zero for ideological purity and political correctness. It does not agonize over DRM or the proprietary driver. In return it gets a first look at some very nice tech and software. iTunes for Windows, anyone?
The larger problem is that the Linux Geek programs for the Linux Geek. The Window's programmer tends to find his satisfaction and profit in writing programs for users with other interests and values.
That is why Grandma put down her needles and picked up Windows to do her fancy embroidery on a Singer. It is also why Linspire's CNR Warehouse tends to look to a home user like a shareware catalog from 1992.
What I like about OO is that you can make your own, and then share them with the world. The problem is that [people ]don't know there are any others besides MS. This means they don't have a chance to 'stub their toes' as it were. Fonts, formatting, templates give people trouble all the time, and if you stub your toes because OO isn't quite like MS Word, be happy because those things can be fixed. Until Wordperfect died, people who used MS Word went through the same thing.
That was then and this is now.
The secretary isn't being paid to re-invent the wheel.
The secretary is being paid to get the monthly employee certificates, good-will posters and office newsletters out the door before the close of business Tuesday.
The one-click download from MS Office Home gets the job done.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll hazard a guess here and say that the GPL'd components of the USDTV firmware are the least interesting to the hacker and the most useless now---nothing more than the standard libraries he's seen and used a hundred times before.
If you are going to fight the good fight, make your battles count. The company has gone belly-up, and the code, more likely than not, is going to disappear into the void no matter what you do.
You have got to be kidding.
I have a Phillips head screwdriver in the kitchen. Will that be any help?
I think it's necessary to have the source code so you could test an install of MythTV.
I think Microsoft may be on to something here, pushing the OEM system install in the home PC market.
First question that comes to mind:
How many subscribers would be able to flash the firmware without bricking their box even if they had the source code and binaries?
[it happens, sometimes, even to the geek who is sure he knows what he is doing]
Second question:
Where in the contract does it say that these set top boxes are user-serviceable? If they are not, then the code becomes of intellectual interest only.
Third question:
What makes paying for a USB key differet from paying for a CableCard to access and unlock subscription content and services?
The take-off point was Win 95 not XP.
"In the marketplace, Windows 95 was an unqualified success, and within a year or two of its release had become the most successful operating system ever produced." Windows 95
The mid-line consumer PC rated and sold for Vista Premium or Ultimate is a very sophisticated product.
In the same sense that the Blu-Ray disk implies a Blu-Ray player and HDTV and digital cable, satellite or terrestrial broadcast HD service.
If all the core technology and infrastructure needed for Vista - for Blu-Ray - became mass market five years ago - three years ago - six months ago - I would like to know where.
Perhaps, more mundanely, they just think of it another home appliance like the set-top box or the video game console.
XBox Live! is for the XBox owner.
DRM kicks in only when your rights conflict with the rights of others. No one is forcing you load and run a licensed program or media file. Except perhaps your boss - who has his own interests to protect.
In other words, they would not be in the market for OSX or Linux.
Vista has not really increased MS revenues. MS must convince the shareholders that the $5bn spent on Vista is going to be a worthwhile investment
Microsoft, debt-free, and with quarterly revenues of $14 billion dollars can afford to take the long view - and the short-term hit from the free upgrade coupons still around for Vista.
"What's important to us from an investment standpoint is that Microsoft has entrenched one of its most important businesses for an additional few years, and that virtually every new computer sold on the planet going forward will have Vista pre-installed on it." Finding Value In Microsoft
give me a break.
in a market that is 95% Windows the guy who does his Christmas shopping at Dell doesn't toss the coupon worth a $150 software upgrade for his new Vista-rated system.
This has become the new Slashdot mantra.
But I have to tell that in this upscale suburb the last Windows PC I saw at the curb for pick-up was a crapped-out Packard Bell 486.
The Vista DVD is available as a legal download.
The true Geek of course never burns back-up copies of his OS and applications to disk.
Never spends a dime on securing his off-line storage.
Never asks how many resources are consumed in creating and maintaining his 1.5 TB RAID array. Never sees his downloads throttled or a surchage on his account.
The shoebox sized USPS Flat-Rate Box - any weight, any state - costs $8.10. It beasts fiber to the premises if you want to make efficient use of an existing infrastructure.
The geek never quite grasps the most basic distinctions between civil and criminal law.
In a civil action it is normal to propose a settlement out of court. Only 1% of the civil cases that enter the federal system go to a verdict. The RIAA only has to show that it is more probable than not that you were an infringer. Despite all the contrived defenses proposed on Slashdot, that is not a particularly difficult burden to bear. The odds are good that you won't be a promising poster child for the EFF and that there will be no help coming from that direction.
Copyright infringement is a crime under American federal law and you can do hard time.
Scream "Copyright infringement is not theft!" all the way to prison if you like, but it isn't going to change a damn thing. Man Arrested for Uploading Movie to Internet
The movie was a watermarked Academy screener easily traced to Nunez's sister - exposing family to professional sanctions and criminal prosecution does not have the look of a victimless crime.
The theft of intangible property is by no means an unknown concept in American statutory law. The Economic Espionage Act of 1996: The Theft of Trade Secrets is now a Federal Crime
and the solution to the problem of having too much time and not enough money is increasing your exposure on the P2P nets?
as opposed, to say, subscribing to an on-campus music service?
5-4 Supreme Court Abolishes Juvenile Executions, Roper v. Simmons
Fully half of Apple's revenues can be traced back to iTunes and the iPod. It ain't iTunes on the Mac with its 2% market share world-wide that's delivering those big bucks to Cupertino.
OSX on the x86 platform runs on a sub-set of the hardware which evolved with the commodity PC running Windows. The Linux Geek - if he is honest - also knows that it was the mass-market PC running Windows which transformed the home user from the Geek with the 14K modem to the family with fiber to the premises---and did it all in little more than ten years.
did you also notice that Atkins was a U.S. Supreme Court decision?
During Bush's six years as governor 150 men and two women were executed in Texas--a record unmatched by any other governor in modern American history. The Texas Clemency Memos
The Texan executions of the retarded since 1976 were in 1990, 1992, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000. Defendants with Mental Retardation Executed in the United States
Oliver Cruz was the last and it became an issue in the Bush campaign:
Gov. George W. Bush claimed Wednesday that Texas doesn't execute mentally retarded killers, although at least five such convicts have been put to death in recent years. ... In all cases, mental competency is a factor in Texas law."
The comment came as the GOP presidential nominee was campaigning in California, hours before two Texas inmates were executed. One of the inmates, Oliver D. Cruz, was described as mentally retarded, though that conclusion was challenged by prosecutors earlier this week.
Answering news media questions upon his arrival from Texas, Bush indicated that justice was being served with the executions of Cruz and a second inmate, Brian Roberson. But when told that several states have banned the execution of mentally retarded inmates, Bush said, "So do we, in Texas."
However, no ban has been approved by Texas lawmakers, although they tried as recently as 1999. Bush opposed that bill.
Constraints in existing law, which Bush cited as safeguards, failed to prevent the execution of five mentally retarded inmates since 1984 -- six, according to those who argue that Cruz was retarded. "For anybody tried in the state of Texas, mental capacity is a factor, not only during the trial phase but during the appellate phase," Bush said. "
Queried about his opposition to the 1999 bill to ban executions of the retarded, Bush insisted Texas' current law is adequate. And that's the point he was trying to make when he made his controversial remark, an aide said.
"Texas law has many safeguards in place to prevent someone who is not competent from even going to trial, much less being executed," said campaign spokesman Scott McClellan, adding that at least five laws come into play in such cases.
Even if one juror has reasonable doubts about the defendant's mental ability to form the intent to commit a crime, then that person must be acquitted," he noted.
Wednesday night's execution of Cruz drew more than the usual attention on Texas' death chamber, the busiest in the nation. That is in part because of the debate over executing people with mental retardation and because of Bush's bid for the presidency, which has put his positions on crime and punishment under heavy scrutiny.
Bush's discussion with reporters on the topic ended as he headed to a campaign event, and he wasn't immediately available to elaborate. The candidate was making a train tour of portions of California.
Houston Democrat Sen. Rodney Ellis was author of the bill last year that would have banned the execution of inmates with an IQ of 65 or lower. Ellis said in an interview Wednesday that Bush told him at the time, "I think current law is fine."
Although the bill passed the Texas Senate, 22-8, it died in a House committee.
Ellis said he plans to reintroduce the bill next spring to ban the execution of anyone with an IQ of 70 or lower and to make it retroactive to include those on death row now. If passed, Texas would join 12 other states in such bans.
Nationwide, 34 mentally retarded offenders with IQs of 70 or lower have been executed since April 5, 1984, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Of those, five were in Texas, not counting Cruz.
Terry Washington, a 33-year-old black man, was executed during Bush's administration. Another mentally retarded offender, Mario Marquez, was exec
The Enterprise was on a "five year mission" to get enough episodes in the can to become profitable in syndication.
Stargate can get by without expensive F/X. It doesn't have to explain anything.
The gates are ancient, alien, tech that can be worked by anyone. Simple and open-ended. Perfect for the story-teller - Edgar Rice Burroughs was working this ground as early as 1912 - and welcome relief from the techno-babble of Star Trek.
The gothic cathedral was in many ways a communal project that evolved over decades and even centuries. David Macaulay: Cathedral DVD The medieval craft guilds had a very large say in who sold what and where. Medieval Gulds I can't find an anchorage for Raymond's analogy in any historical reality.
Think carefully before answering.
You might someday find yourself the plaintiff or defendant in a civil action. The defendant in a criminal action.
The child could make or break your case.
Do you want the right to subpoena her as a witness? To have her testify under oath? Do you want the right of cross-examination?
The courts do not make rules that could deny the RIAA the right to directly question a child. They do make rules that could deny anyone the right to directly question a child.
But that does not necessarily mean the jury won't not get to hear the edited or hearsay version of what the child had to say.
That ended five years ago:
Mental Retardation and the Death Penalty. Atkins v. Virgina,Atkins v. Virginia
Texas, the state that gave us President George W. Bush, is especially fond of executing the young and mentally handicapped.
Of the 44 mentally retarded in the U.S. executed since 1976, nine were in Texas, five in Virgina, only four were executed in states outside the southern Confederacy in the American Civil War.
Defendants with Mental Retardation Executed in the United States
There have been 387 executions in Texas since December 1982. The youngest was 24 in 1985. 17 when he killed a clerk for a six-pack of beer in a convenience-store robbery. There has been almost nothing the like of that since. Executed Offenders
I would have thought the purpose of the second amendment was to preserve the tradition of a "well -regulated" state militia [an oxymoron if ever there was one] as the alternative to a permanent and professional standing army.
and the street price for 16 MB of RAM in 1980 would have been...what, exactly?
Gates began programming at age thirteen, at age fourteen he is clearing $20,000 in is first partnership with Allen. Microsoft is founded in 1975. Microsoft in in Japan in 1978. In Europe in 1979. In 1980 Microsoft is young, hungry, and moving a hell of lot faster than Kildall.
so you're the guy whose face became a dart board in the cubicles?
The first problem is that Linux came late to the party.
Your dad bought his first MSDOS PC in 1980. Your kids began with XP at age four in 2001. You need a very compelling reason to switch.
The second problem is that the Geek is blandly incomprehending of the home PC market.
It isn't just games - although Windows gaming remains a billion-dollar industry - and Microsoft in Vista and the XBox 360 is weaving the PC and console gamer ever more closely together.
It isn't just media - but shop around a little and you can find a first generation Blu-Ray drive for Windows for under $600.
This is of course a market segment that rates zero for ideological purity and political correctness. It does not agonize over DRM or the proprietary driver. In return it gets a first look at some very nice tech and software. iTunes for Windows, anyone?
The larger problem is that the Linux Geek programs for the Linux Geek. The Window's programmer tends to find his satisfaction and profit in writing programs for users with other interests and values.
That is why Grandma put down her needles and picked up Windows to do her fancy embroidery on a Singer. It is also why Linspire's CNR Warehouse tends to look to a home user like a shareware catalog from 1992.
That was then and this is now.
The secretary isn't being paid to re-invent the wheel.
The secretary is being paid to get the monthly employee certificates, good-will posters and office newsletters out the door before the close of business Tuesday.
The one-click download from MS Office Home gets the job done.