Except that the prior art date to beat is 22 April 1996, and Starcraft didn't come out until 1999.
There may be some prior art for some of the claims, but you'd probably have to delve into the depths of MUDding to get it - and much of it may no longer exist.
Software patents confuse the hell out of me. I mean, reading the patent abstract
You're supposed to read the claims. The abstract doesn't define the scope of the patent (although it can sometimes be referred to, just like the rest of the specification, for assistance in determining what certain claim terms mean).
I don't make any promises on being less confused by doing so, though.
Russia recently got dinged on the same issue with regard to the Su-27, which they allowed the Chinese to manufacture under license but that the Chinese then copied, and now they're refusing to manufacture the Su-35 in China as a result.
Er... huh? No, the idea of global warming is supposed to be that the average global temperature is increasing over the long term.
To rephrase my earlier post: when global warming deniers point to individual years or individual regions that are colder than they were previously, it's considered to be nonscientific cherry-picking of data. But this guy points to an individual region to support an assertion of global warming, and that's okay?
The laws are predicated upon "probability", and it's tantamount to saying "statistically, left-handed people are slightly more likely to commit crimes, therefore we should pre-emptively jail them."
Bullshit. It's demonstrably true that intoxication drastically reduces reaction time (among other things), impairing your ability to drive. Society has determined that a certain level of impairment is severe enough that people who are impaired to that degree should not be permitted the privilege of driving while they are so impaired.
And fatalities are not the only negative public effect from drunk driving. There are non-fatal injuries and property damage (to other people's property, not just the driver's) as well. There is a clear public interest in outlawing DWI - the only real question is how the government should be allowed to go about investigating and prosecuting these crimes.
Some spammers I swear are just spamming for the sake of spamming. Where's the money in that?
Spammers are essentially playing suckers against suckers. They make money by convincing the morons who are selling a crap product that people actually read/see spam these days, and that it's advantageous to spend money to advertise via spam. In other words, spamming itself is the business, not the sale of knock-off products.
I don't need to cite a source - the entire point of saying that is because Limbaugh equates Soros and MoveOn.org. That's all I really need to explain the rationale for his statements, whether it's true or not.
It could have been nonpartisan, right up until the point where MoveOn.org (i.e., George Soros) got involved. And, predictably, the issue became toxic for any Republican who might otherwise have seen that while the telecoms don't benefit from net neutrality, the content providers/distributors (Google and Netflix, rather than "Big Hollywood") and further online innovation benefit tremendously.
Rush Limbaugh may be blind to the truth about net neutrality, but he at least knows why he's on this particular battlefield: single combat with George Soros.
I think the key is whether you're a dick to other people about your beliefs. And there are more than enough Pat Robertsons and Richard Dawkinses out there to fill this niche on both sides.
I fail to see a problem here. Electricity is generally considered to be a necessary staple of living in the US, yet we pay people to generate and deliver it to us. Why should water, with appropriate regulation in place, not be privatized?
The real answer lies neither in blind deregulation nor in overeager regulation. Rather, what's needed is an honest assessment of what places in the electricity industry are being stifled by over-regulation, and which places are likely to result in abuse of the consumer with under-regulation.
For instance, the entry into the market of firms that do nothing but buy and sell electricity to extract profit from arbitrage only serves to increase prices and creates opportunities for abuse. Regulation is needed to ensure that such firms have no place in the market and that such severe arbitrage is not possible.
On the other hand, further development of the electricity infrastructure is greatly hindered by environmental regulations and NIMBY objections, to the point where even renewable energy projects such as solar and wind power run into problems getting environmental approval or are delayed by several years while the approval process bears itself out. Deregulation is needed to ensure that beneficial projects can proceed as long as pollution regulations are observed in the construction and operation process.
Just a correction on what I said above - there was a summary judgment in the district court against MDY on the tortious contract interference count, but it was vacated and remanded by the appellate court for further consideration because there was an issue of material fact still to be decided.
It's not circumvention if you don't crack the encryption, and there has to be some portion of the process that is unencrypted in order to be executable in the first place. And who cares if there's a secondary process running to detect probing the first process's memory space - being detected isn't circumvention either.
Also, Wikipedia is scant on details on what "shut it down" means, but it sounds more like they're talking about shutting down chatbots and such. This could mean that it merely disconnects the user from the server, which wouldn't involve killing any processes, but even if it does, it's not circumvention because killing the process doesn't grant access to a protected work.
IGE may rely on its reputation, but it isn't the only game in town. There are so many different spammers/sellers out there, and all they have to do is register a new domain name if the old one loses its pizzazz. Same thing with the company names and the contracts with CC companies. Plus, they don't have to use the CC info right away - they can wait several months and use it then, when the chances of people making a connection are reduced.
I should be allowed to download and run any software I want on my computer. I should be allowed to develop any software I want.
Sure, go for it. Just don't log into the WoW servers while you're doing it.
Personally, I'm not too keen on using the DMCA to this end, either. I always thought that tortious contract interference (which was a different count in the suit, and on which MDY has also been found liable) was the way to go, but there may be some legal niceties associated with that concept that I'm not familiar with.
What kinds of protections? There's really not much that a bot can do to require the Warden to circumvent a countermeasure in order to detect its presence. Scanning memory for a certain memory string doesn't require circumvention, for instance.
A good example was EQ2 back in the day... the spammers would buy a box for $30 and get banned within a few hours. 1 box per server x 20 (or so) servers x $30 x 3-4 days a week = a lot of reason not to do anything that would really stop the spamming all together.
Actually, the gold farmers frequently buy subscriptions using the credit card info they get from their customers. When the cardholder gets their bill, they complain, and the credit card company does a chargeback, which not only takes away the subscription fee from the MMO company, but also charges them a chargeback fee, and could even cause other fees to be higher if their chargeback rate exceeds a certain threshold.
Meanwhile, when spamming, they typically use these accounts when they believe a chargeback is imminent (since the account will be closed anyway), or they use accounts for which they've gotten the login info through phishing or keyloggers.
Slashdot Mirror
Except that the prior art date to beat is 22 April 1996, and Starcraft didn't come out until 1999.
There may be some prior art for some of the claims, but you'd probably have to delve into the depths of MUDding to get it - and much of it may no longer exist.
Software patents confuse the hell out of me. I mean, reading the patent abstract
You're supposed to read the claims. The abstract doesn't define the scope of the patent (although it can sometimes be referred to, just like the rest of the specification, for assistance in determining what certain claim terms mean).
I don't make any promises on being less confused by doing so, though.
If you're wondering if he writes reviews
Or other science facts (la la la)
Just repeat to yourself, "It's just Slashdot
I should really just relax"
Actually, I think the correct overused meme would be, "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those!"
In other words, the IT guys who maintain these servers all have greasy hair, don't wear shirts, and are total douchebags.
So, can Mister Armchair Quarterback do any better at rejecting those claims?
Russia recently got dinged on the same issue with regard to the Su-27, which they allowed the Chinese to manufacture under license but that the Chinese then copied, and now they're refusing to manufacture the Su-35 in China as a result.
Er... huh? No, the idea of global warming is supposed to be that the average global temperature is increasing over the long term.
To rephrase my earlier post: when global warming deniers point to individual years or individual regions that are colder than they were previously, it's considered to be nonscientific cherry-picking of data. But this guy points to an individual region to support an assertion of global warming, and that's okay?
The laws are predicated upon "probability", and it's tantamount to saying "statistically, left-handed people are slightly more likely to commit crimes, therefore we should pre-emptively jail them."
Bullshit. It's demonstrably true that intoxication drastically reduces reaction time (among other things), impairing your ability to drive. Society has determined that a certain level of impairment is severe enough that people who are impaired to that degree should not be permitted the privilege of driving while they are so impaired.
And fatalities are not the only negative public effect from drunk driving. There are non-fatal injuries and property damage (to other people's property, not just the driver's) as well. There is a clear public interest in outlawing DWI - the only real question is how the government should be allowed to go about investigating and prosecuting these crimes.
that far-north global warming is still accelerating
Isn't it cherry-picking to point specifically to "far-north global warming", when global warming is supposed to be, er... global?
Is there data on how much additional atmospheric CO2 would be required for this acidification to have an actual effect on aquatic life?
Your URL is tiny. (points and laughs)
It's also broken. Maybe just try posting the real link next time.
Some spammers I swear are just spamming for the sake of spamming. Where's the money in that?
Spammers are essentially playing suckers against suckers. They make money by convincing the morons who are selling a crap product that people actually read/see spam these days, and that it's advantageous to spend money to advertise via spam. In other words, spamming itself is the business, not the sale of knock-off products.
I don't need to cite a source - the entire point of saying that is because Limbaugh equates Soros and MoveOn.org. That's all I really need to explain the rationale for his statements, whether it's true or not.
Keep in mind that the French are equally vehement about the purity of their language. This could be the next great war :|
Fortunately, we already know who's going to win that one:
It could have been nonpartisan, right up until the point where MoveOn.org (i.e., George Soros) got involved. And, predictably, the issue became toxic for any Republican who might otherwise have seen that while the telecoms don't benefit from net neutrality, the content providers/distributors (Google and Netflix, rather than "Big Hollywood") and further online innovation benefit tremendously.
Rush Limbaugh may be blind to the truth about net neutrality, but he at least knows why he's on this particular battlefield: single combat with George Soros.
I think the key is whether you're a dick to other people about your beliefs. And there are more than enough Pat Robertsons and Richard Dawkinses out there to fill this niche on both sides.
I fail to see a problem here. Electricity is generally considered to be a necessary staple of living in the US, yet we pay people to generate and deliver it to us. Why should water, with appropriate regulation in place, not be privatized?
The real answer lies neither in blind deregulation nor in overeager regulation. Rather, what's needed is an honest assessment of what places in the electricity industry are being stifled by over-regulation, and which places are likely to result in abuse of the consumer with under-regulation.
For instance, the entry into the market of firms that do nothing but buy and sell electricity to extract profit from arbitrage only serves to increase prices and creates opportunities for abuse. Regulation is needed to ensure that such firms have no place in the market and that such severe arbitrage is not possible.
On the other hand, further development of the electricity infrastructure is greatly hindered by environmental regulations and NIMBY objections, to the point where even renewable energy projects such as solar and wind power run into problems getting environmental approval or are delayed by several years while the approval process bears itself out. Deregulation is needed to ensure that beneficial projects can proceed as long as pollution regulations are observed in the construction and operation process.
Just a correction on what I said above - there was a summary judgment in the district court against MDY on the tortious contract interference count, but it was vacated and remanded by the appellate court for further consideration because there was an issue of material fact still to be decided.
It's not circumvention if you don't crack the encryption, and there has to be some portion of the process that is unencrypted in order to be executable in the first place. And who cares if there's a secondary process running to detect probing the first process's memory space - being detected isn't circumvention either.
Also, Wikipedia is scant on details on what "shut it down" means, but it sounds more like they're talking about shutting down chatbots and such. This could mean that it merely disconnects the user from the server, which wouldn't involve killing any processes, but even if it does, it's not circumvention because killing the process doesn't grant access to a protected work.
IGE may rely on its reputation, but it isn't the only game in town. There are so many different spammers/sellers out there, and all they have to do is register a new domain name if the old one loses its pizzazz. Same thing with the company names and the contracts with CC companies. Plus, they don't have to use the CC info right away - they can wait several months and use it then, when the chances of people making a connection are reduced.
I should be allowed to download and run any software I want on my computer. I should be allowed to develop any software I want.
Sure, go for it. Just don't log into the WoW servers while you're doing it.
Personally, I'm not too keen on using the DMCA to this end, either. I always thought that tortious contract interference (which was a different count in the suit, and on which MDY has also been found liable) was the way to go, but there may be some legal niceties associated with that concept that I'm not familiar with.
What kinds of protections? There's really not much that a bot can do to require the Warden to circumvent a countermeasure in order to detect its presence. Scanning memory for a certain memory string doesn't require circumvention, for instance.
A good example was EQ2 back in the day... the spammers would buy a box for $30 and get banned within a few hours. 1 box per server x 20 (or so) servers x $30 x 3-4 days a week = a lot of reason not to do anything that would really stop the spamming all together.
Actually, the gold farmers frequently buy subscriptions using the credit card info they get from their customers. When the cardholder gets their bill, they complain, and the credit card company does a chargeback, which not only takes away the subscription fee from the MMO company, but also charges them a chargeback fee, and could even cause other fees to be higher if their chargeback rate exceeds a certain threshold.
Meanwhile, when spamming, they typically use these accounts when they believe a chargeback is imminent (since the account will be closed anyway), or they use accounts for which they've gotten the login info through phishing or keyloggers.