There is still something I can do: add Panasonic, Philips, Samsung and Sony to my never-to-buy-again-from list.
There are, ultimately, only a half dozen or so significant OEM sources for key components in systems aimed at the U.S. market. You waste your time boycotting a brand name.
Sales of newer electronic devices plummet as consumers realize the older DRM free players will play MP3 files, and the newer models offer no advantage.
Sales improve as new devices offer new features.
Consumers don't give a damn about DRM so long as they have access to prime media content from the major providers.
Re:end threat
on
Linux, Inc.
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
If M$ really wanted to end the threat, and I mean end it for mom & dad users
Microsoft has had the Mom & Dad users since 1980.
WalMart, with its enormous purchasing power, can't sell a Linux system off the web that undercuts it's Windows equivalent by more than 50 bucks. Simpler and cheaper to call Dell, avoid the sales tax, and get free home delivery.
The Betamax ruling was that the maker of a product - and the court repeatedly used the word product -
It is a mistake to rest all your hopes on how a single word was used in a particular case. The Supreme Court tends to pull back sharply from too careless or sweeping a generalization.
Betamax was still nothing more than a video recorder. It presented the same legal problems as a photocopier, fax machine, etc., and that is how the issue would have been framed before the Court in the eighties.
A P2P network is usually both a program and a service. There may be a centralized file library or clearing house, something of the sort. From Grokster's home page:
"Grokster's SuperNode technology provides for the fastest searches. Grokster tracks detailed file info and allows detailed searches on it. Grokster will also track and remember up to 24 simultaneous searches."Grokster
The Court may be ready to decide that there is a level of invovement in the massive unlicensed distribution of copyrighted media through P2P networks that it is no longer willing to tolerate.
Remember that a grant of cert is rare. No more than two hundred cases a year get this far.
IE, a s/w program is simply an algorithm. If you invent an algorithm and someone else uses that for something 'bad', then what has that got to do with you?
plenty, if you market a program for a particular use, or are in a position to control how a program is used, or have reason to know it will be abused.
courts as a rule don't think in terms of abstractions, but of actions and consequences in the real world.
Of course the Betamax case clearly puts the distributors of the technology (which has clearly legal uses) out of the danger area.
Betamax was a pure hardware device, a simple video recorder. It was not a program library, a catalog, or a distribution system. Dangerous to assume that the court will regard the Betamax decision as controlling.
Warez has barter value. It no longer matters whether or not you are in the game for the money:
The term "financial gain" includes receipt, or expectation of receipt, of anything of value, including the receipt of other copyrighted works. The No Electronic Theft ("NET") Act
The NET Act, signed by Clinton in 1997, makes it pretty damn clear where Congress stands on the quesion of whether copyright infringement is theft.
Selling a boxed version on Ebay or on the street is a different story. It seems the DOJ is trying their best to blur these lines. Good for the real software pirates, but bad for P2Pers.
The warez Half-Life is still Half-LIfe. The posting doesn't become legal because it "ships" without the cardboard box.
The question is, why is Ashcroft trying to tell us that copyright infringement is theft? The only other people who do that are the RIAA, the MPAA, and Slashdot trolls.
the jury needs to be informed on jury nullification
Three names: Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney.
Jury nullification in murder cases brought against the Ku Klux Klan poisoned the well. There isn't a federal judge of any political persuasion that would tolerate talk of nullification in a criminal trial.
Walmart buries Linux on it's website, typically offers no more than a half-dozen systems with bottom-feeder specs, which sell for within $50 or so of their Windows equivelent, in-store pickup means you pay sales tax.
You can get a better system price from Dell and free home delivery.
Why don't those manufacture that do bring out Linux laptops this?
Because no one sane wants to provide technical support for dual-boot systems and the 3,000 or so randomly chosen apps installed with your typical Linux distro.
They probably ran into some ActiveX site, such as Cartoon Network's Kids Next Door: Operation BEST, that by its nature does not work in any official Mozilla.org product. Next time, try a subtle hint: add a registry key that sets IE's title to "Microsoft Spyware Installer.
here is another subtle hint: users won't allow you to shut off access to the content they want, security be damned. you don't get that kind of power outside of the workplace.
Why on earth should I have to tell the airline anything at all about what I do for a living or where I'm staying? it's none of their business
an airline isn't required to board passengers bound for the states who won't be allowed entry into the states, and whose presence on board may force the diversion of an airliner to an alternate, secure, landing site.
If Senators were appointed by the legislatures, you'd see a dramatic decline in influence peddling in the Senate because the lobbyists would have to try to bribe every state legislator to get their way instead of having a one-stop-shop with the Senator
This has to stand as one of the most historically ignorant posts on Slashdot.
In the late 19th century, Bill Gates would have had his man in the Senate, or, in an active retirement, taken a seat himself. Everyone knew who represented the railroads, coal, silver, wheat, big steel.
We need to increase the size of the House of Representatives ten-fold at least. One congressman per 50K constituents would make the congressman more amenable to the will of the people than to big business lobbyists.
All this accomplishes is to dilute the significance of your Congressman and increase the power of the specialist committes that develop legislation and route bills through passage.
In a true representative democracy there should be a rough correlation between opinion polls and the way members of congress act. This is rarely the case nowadays.
The american system was quite deliberately structured to be resistant to popular opinion. That said, any realistic assessment of american public opinion would describe it as center-right by historical standards, which is pretty much how things look in the House of Representatives.
Here's a better idea. People could stop voting for candidates who's agenda starts and stops with business interests.
Lots of folks in California are a part of the entertainment industry. It's shocking that they should vote for what they perceive to be in their own interest.
So, when a cure for AIDS is found, should Bill Gates get 1.5% of each dose sold? Or should it be made available to heal the sick, as doctors are sworn to do?
The traditional Hippocratic Oath defined the responsibilites of the healer and a system of practice something like a medieval guild, in which medical knowledge is transmitted from father to son and other male apprentices. It did not require you to offer your services for free and offers no guidance on how to organize and fund research, development and manufacture that may need to draw on the talents of thousands or tens of thousands of workers outside your own profession.
it would be as if columbus made people pay him and his descendents a royalty to explore the new world.
Columbus claimed a hereditary governorship of the new western territories under the terms of the agreement with his Spanish sponsors. That fell apart when the true dimensions of his discoveries became apparent.
If people don't have the natural desire to understand themselves enough to innovate in this field, to hell with 'em..
Understanding requires money, manpower, and specialized resources. We are far past the days when a man like Pasteur could make a significant advance on his own.
The Gates Foundation alone has spend over $100 million researching AIDS.
If someone discovers a way to cure me, or augment me, or terrorize the living hell out of me I don't want that technique monopolized.
But you will take the cure if you can get it. That is something I can speak to from personal experience. The drugs and technologies were there when I needed them because someone saw profit to be made in their development. I'll not complain about outliving their patents.
Exclude living systems and their components (e.g., genes) from the patent system. Period. End of story.
It isn't going to happen.
The first U.S. plant patents were granted in 1930, sixteen patents were awarded posthumously to Luther Burbank, 1849-1926, the 10,000th plant patent was granted in 1997. Today in Science History
Burpee was commercially developing hybrid plant and animal stocks as early as 1876, only ten years after Mendel gave selective breeding a scientific basis.
Slashdot Mirror
Almost none are granted cert.
Oral arguments will be heard in about 100 cases.
About 50-60 cases will be disposed of without argument. The Justices Caseload
There are, ultimately, only a half dozen or so significant OEM sources for key components in systems aimed at the U.S. market. You waste your time boycotting a brand name.
Sales improve as new devices offer new features.
Consumers don't give a damn about DRM so long as they have access to prime media content from the major providers.
Microsoft has had the Mom & Dad users since 1980.
WalMart, with its enormous purchasing power, can't sell a Linux system off the web that undercuts it's Windows equivalent by more than 50 bucks. Simpler and cheaper to call Dell, avoid the sales tax, and get free home delivery.
It is a mistake to rest all your hopes on how a single word was used in a particular case. The Supreme Court tends to pull back sharply from too careless or sweeping a generalization.
Betamax was still nothing more than a video recorder. It presented the same legal problems as a photocopier, fax machine, etc., and that is how the issue would have been framed before the Court in the eighties.
A P2P network is usually both a program and a service. There may be a centralized file library or clearing house, something of the sort. From Grokster's home page:
"Grokster's SuperNode technology provides for the fastest searches. Grokster tracks detailed file info and allows detailed searches on it. Grokster will also track and remember up to 24 simultaneous searches." Grokster
The Court may be ready to decide that there is a level of invovement in the massive unlicensed distribution of copyrighted media through P2P networks that it is no longer willing to tolerate.
Remember that a grant of cert is rare. No more than two hundred cases a year get this far.
plenty, if you market a program for a particular use, or are in a position to control how a program is used, or have reason to know it will be abused.
courts as a rule don't think in terms of abstractions, but of actions and consequences in the real world.
Betamax was a pure hardware device, a simple video recorder. It was not a program library, a catalog, or a distribution system. Dangerous to assume that the court will regard the Betamax decision as controlling.
Warez has barter value. It no longer matters whether or not you are in the game for the money:
The term "financial gain" includes receipt, or expectation of receipt, of anything of value, including the receipt of other copyrighted works. The No Electronic Theft ("NET") Act
The NET Act, signed by Clinton in 1997, makes it pretty damn clear where Congress stands on the quesion of whether copyright infringement is theft.
Selling a boxed version on Ebay or on the street is a different story. It seems the DOJ is trying their best to blur these lines. Good for the real software pirates, but bad for P2Pers.
The warez Half-Life is still Half-LIfe. The posting doesn't become legal because it "ships" without the cardboard box.
The No Electronic Theft ("NET") Act Signed by Clinton in 1997.
With copyright infringement becomes a felony, calling it theft gives fair warning to those who are playing with fire.
Three names: Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney.
Jury nullification in murder cases brought against the Ku Klux Klan poisoned the well. There isn't a federal judge of any political persuasion that would tolerate talk of nullification in a criminal trial.
The law does not agree with you. For a summary of U.S. federal law and practice: Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section CCIPS
For NET Act changes to Title 17 and Title 18: The No Electronic Theft ("NET") Act
you receive something of value, equivelent to the retail package of a warez game, there is financial gain.
It goes beyound thoughtcrime when you are caught with a blueprint of your target and the components of a bomb.
You can get a better system price from Dell and free home delivery.
Because no one sane wants to provide technical support for dual-boot systems and the 3,000 or so randomly chosen apps installed with your typical Linux distro.
here is another subtle hint: users won't allow you to shut off access to the content they want, security be damned. you don't get that kind of power outside of the workplace.
an airline isn't required to board passengers bound for the states who won't be allowed entry into the states, and whose presence on board may force the diversion of an airliner to an alternate, secure, landing site.
This has to stand as one of the most historically ignorant posts on Slashdot.
In the late 19th century, Bill Gates would have had his man in the Senate, or, in an active retirement, taken a seat himself. Everyone knew who represented the railroads, coal, silver, wheat, big steel.
All this accomplishes is to dilute the significance of your Congressman and increase the power of the specialist committes that develop legislation and route bills through passage.
In a true representative democracy there should be a rough correlation between opinion polls and the way members of congress act. This is rarely the case nowadays.
The american system was quite deliberately structured to be resistant to popular opinion. That said, any realistic assessment of american public opinion would describe it as center-right by historical standards, which is pretty much how things look in the House of Representatives.
Lots of folks in California are a part of the entertainment industry. It's shocking that they should vote for what they perceive to be in their own interest.
doctors almost always speak in terms of treatments, not of cures. true cures require decades to validate and are rare.
The traditional Hippocratic Oath defined the responsibilites of the healer and a system of practice something like a medieval guild, in which medical knowledge is transmitted from father to son and other male apprentices. It did not require you to offer your services for free and offers no guidance on how to organize and fund research, development and manufacture that may need to draw on the talents of thousands or tens of thousands of workers outside your own profession.
Columbus claimed a hereditary governorship of the new western territories under the terms of the agreement with his Spanish sponsors. That fell apart when the true dimensions of his discoveries became apparent.
Understanding requires money, manpower, and specialized resources. We are far past the days when a man like Pasteur could make a significant advance on his own.
The Gates Foundation alone has spend over $100 million researching AIDS.
If someone discovers a way to cure me, or augment me, or terrorize the living hell out of me I don't want that technique monopolized.
But you will take the cure if you can get it. That is something I can speak to from personal experience. The drugs and technologies were there when I needed them because someone saw profit to be made in their development. I'll not complain about outliving their patents.
It isn't going to happen.
The first U.S. plant patents were granted in 1930, sixteen patents were awarded posthumously to Luther Burbank, 1849-1926, the 10,000th plant patent was granted in 1997. Today in Science History
Burpee was commercially developing hybrid plant and animal stocks as early as 1876, only ten years after Mendel gave selective breeding a scientific basis.