Have you considered contacting the Groklaw guys about this? They could probably do a pretty good presentation to the SEC. Your experience just might give them the motivation.
it seems they have a point. Novels wouldn't really be hurt by it (and may actually be helped), but think about reference books and other things.
That doesn't matter: the publishers must be in good faith - after all falling sales would hurt them as well. When the authors disagree, it can be for one of two reasons:
1) They honestly disagree with the publishers over whether it hurts sales or not.
2) This is a negotiating tactic for more royalties: Firstly, if searchable books really generate more sales, the authors want to renegotiate their deal, they'll be in a position to get a nearly 100% share of the extra profit. Secondly, the authors have slightly more leverage when negotiating future contracts - after all the publishers must also secure the "e-search rights" (whis will of course become a part of boiler-plate contracts).
Whether the motivation is 1) or (more likely) 2) the authors' response is the logical (="greedy") one, so they'll probably stick to it all the way through court...
Q23: I'm too busy to do this right now, but I'd like to do it later. How long is this study going on?
A: We anticipate the study to be wrapping up at the end of 2003, but we will probably be done recruiting by mid-year at the latest, so don't wait too long. Sorry, no reservations accepted.
I'll go digging at archive.org now to find out how long they've been up.
How about [...] donating it to help the kids in Africa
Slightly trollish, but whatever: How about giving it to
Corinne Dufka
Human rights champion combining skills as photojournalist and social worker to bring media attention, humanitarian aid, and legal order to Sierra Leone, one of the most war-ravaged and ignored places on earth
Peter Gleick
Conservation analyst demonstrating the key role of fresh water resources at the intersection of global ecology, economy, and politics
Jim Yong Kim
Public health physician formulating new and successful models for treating and containing major diseases in the poorest regions of the world
Pedro A. Sanchez
Agronomist pioneering effective and economical solutions to problems of land productivity in some of the most arid regions of southern Africa
Nahh, that's not like it's going to help poor kids in Africa...
...for the guy who some day down the line gets 64.94.110.11. All these null routes probably won't go away that easily. He'll have lots of mystified users...
I hate bad software patents as much as the next guy, and that's why I took it upon myself to get educated on the process and language; and that's why I -read- these patents.
Good job. I think this is one of the bad ones:
The idea is very simple. Prior art or not, it ought to be unpatentable for "lack of inventive step". (In a sensible patent system, that is).
The actual coding is a matter of much perspiration and should be protected. That's what copyright is for. I think the US should follow the lead of the recent decision of the European Parliament and limit patentability.
If you bring in the journalists they're much more likely to see through SCOs smoke and mirrors, at least if you can feed them some of the right questions. I don't doubt that the rest of the audience will be asking plenty of critical questions as well, which will also influence the journalists.
Darl wants the media attention, it's just that he wants it differently hehe...
It will now be our job to help the European Parliament assert itself against
attempts by Bolkestein and patent lawyers wearing the hat of national
governments to crush the directive project.
The current text has some remaining contraditions in it, but basically the
thrust has been turned around. It has become our directive which we
must help the European Parliament to defend. This is also a question of
the European Parliament's role in an emerging democratic Europe. On the
whole this is very good news for the EU.
What amazes me is the enourmous amount of nonsense arguments.
Don't worry, they're probably equally bad in fields you don't know about:-)
an article in an on-line paper (sorry, Dutch only) that puts forward two really ridiculous arguments
First of all the meat of it is anti-swpat arguments filtered through an MEP and a non-tech journalist. (My impression) What did you expect?
Then there is the Stallmann quote. I think you're too quick at condemning it. "Combinations of tones" can mean simple chords as well - where copyright doesn't apply. (Except perhaps very theoretically.) Anyway, bad choice of words (or something lost in translation)
My first conclusion is that we are all talking emotions here, hampering clear sight and reasoning on what this is all about. I think this is all mainly about a big company located in in Redmond.
If we're talking emotions it's a lot more about "protecting free software" than about "stopping Redmond". (Need not be equivalent). In fact, Microsoft got slammed pretty hard by the eolas case, just like Bill predicted in 1991. There's also the
e-tailers. And when it comes to non-slashdotters, the emotions may pretty often be pro-swpat as well.
From the article, my emphasis: And the most obnoxious feature of the law was that some authors outlived their copyright. Their most popular works would go into public domain while they were still alive and counting on the income.
I beg your pardon?! The law says (said) "copyright expires after 52 yrs" yet the author is surprised that it actually does?
There's plenty of financial institutions willing to take some of his money in return for a guaranteed monthly payment when he comes of age. If he wants Congress to do this for him it's fine with me, but copyright law is the wrong place to do it. Rather, copyright is supposed to "promote science" - that won't happen through nuking the public domain in the service of authors with lacking predictive skills. It's bad enough as it is with the PD being nuked in the service of mouse-infested corporations.
If he produces something that people are willing to pay for, more power to him. It is a sweet deal.
Yes. Too sweet. The deal (copyright term) is set by Congress, but they're not supposed to subsidise authors, they're supposed "to promote progress of the sciences". When they extend copyright they diminish the public domain and this loss must be properly compensated by encouraging new works. Of course this balance act will not allow for life-long copyright terms.
I called 1-703-742-0914 and got Network Solutions. After jumping through a couple of menus i got personal service (no waiting time, so much for slashdotting). I was asked for my name and my email address, and what domain name I was talking about. I said it was about all unregistered.com and.net names;-) I mentioned sitefinder and she told me it was a new service (yada yada) and asked me to contact sitefinder@verisign-grs.com. (Ironically, I misheard that as verisign-grf.com and got...Sitefinder!!)
All accredited registrars have agreed with ICANN to obtain contact information from registrants, to provide it publicly by a Whois service, and to investigate and correct any reported inaccuracies in contact information for domain names registered through them.
Reports submitted through this facility will be forwarded to the appropriate registrar for handling, and the progress of your report will be tracked.
mybox:~> host qawsedrf.net qawsedrf.net A 64.94.110.11 mybox:~> whois qawsedrf.net
Whois Server Version 1.3
Domain names in the.com and.net domains can now be registered with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net for detailed information.
No match for "QAWSEDRF.NET".
Hmm, there seems to be a problem with the whois information for qawsedrf.net. Registrar must have a problem, I should probably fill out the form...
You'd have to sit all day measuring length and curvature of particle tracks
Nowadays the task is (of course) left to computers but back then it was done by female office workers, many of them now married to particle physicists...
Actually "computer" used to mean a person, not a machine. Pretty boring I guess - read "Bridge over River Kwai" for an example.
OS, Web Server and Hosting History for czsdfjasfasd.net
OS: Linux
Server: Apache
Last changed: 16-Sep-2003
IP address: 64.94.110.11
Netblock Owner: VeriSign/Network Solutions
The poster implicitly assumes that he has unencumbered alternatives to.NET. That may be wrong. Who knows how many patents Python infringes? Perl?
Get used to it. Even though Python was both invented and coded by Guido van Rossum, someone else may hold crucial patents. The only way to be sure is to check all applicable patents. If you don't feel like that either just ignore the question, or fight software patents
Btw I don't think KDE should take all the honour for Konstruct. After all it was "inspired by GARNOME" - good to see idea exchange across the major Free desktops.
As soon as it is mandatory for cars to have transmitting GPS recievers to track their movements on highways, then it will become standard issue in cities and other areas. Call me paranoid, but I don't WANT the government tracking me like that.
You're definitely right. It baffles me that an ESA press release says that vehicles "will be tracked by satellites". The Galileo system will have a "Search A Rescue" function, but this doesn't seem feasible for tracking every EU car. Was it written by some clueless marketdroid, or did I lose my clue?
Anyway, the system is implementable with no vehicle tracking - what is needed is a black box logging fees payable. (It could log position as well, but doesn't need to.)
You don't have to be in a geologically active zone to use geothermal. Denmark has no earthquakes or volcanoes but geothermal heating looks feasible in many places. A plant is under construction in
Copenhagenand one is already running in
Thisted
look at Denmark. They are currently working on converting 90% of their entire COUNTRY to using solely wind power.
Hmmm. I'm danish and I never heard of that. Yes, we do have windmills, but
TheSyncs comment seems a lot more accurate.
It should also be noted that wind power is quite expensive. The reason it is used is because the government subsidizes wind power, but taxes coal power. (Most of Denmark is coal powered, how's that for environmentally friendly?) With our current right-wing government[*] these subsidies are being lowered.
We did gain something from the subsidies though. The associated research has made danish wind power industry a prominent global player - good for employment. I lean toward thinking we should be investing in wave power research now, but this isn't happening - someone else will beat us to it.
[*] Right wing in the danish sense. In the american sense they're still a bunch of socialist sissies;-)
Slashdot Mirror
Have you considered contacting the Groklaw guys about this? They could probably do a pretty good presentation to the SEC. Your experience just might give them the motivation.
The analysis.
Fridays memorandum
it seems they have a point. Novels wouldn't really be hurt by it (and may actually be helped), but think about reference books and other things.
That doesn't matter: the publishers must be in good faith - after all falling sales would hurt them as well. When the authors disagree, it can be for one of two reasons:
1) They honestly disagree with the publishers over whether it hurts sales or not.
2) This is a negotiating tactic for more royalties: Firstly, if searchable books really generate more sales, the authors want to renegotiate their deal, they'll be in a position to get a nearly 100% share of the extra profit. Secondly, the authors have slightly more leverage when negotiating future contracts - after all the publishers must also secure the "e-search rights" (whis will of course become a part of boiler-plate contracts).
Whether the motivation is 1) or (more likely) 2) the authors' response is the logical (="greedy") one, so they'll probably stick to it all the way through court...
According to the FAQ
Q23: I'm too busy to do this right now, but I'd like to do it later. How long is this study going on?
A: We anticipate the study to be wrapping up at the end of 2003, but we will probably be done recruiting by mid-year at the latest, so don't wait too long. Sorry, no reservations accepted.
I'll go digging at archive.org now to find out how long they've been up.
How about [...] donating it to help the kids in Africa
Slightly trollish, but whatever: How about giving it to
Corinne Dufka
Human rights champion combining skills as photojournalist and social worker to bring media attention, humanitarian aid, and legal order to Sierra Leone, one of the most war-ravaged and ignored places on earth
Peter Gleick
Conservation analyst demonstrating the key role of fresh water resources at the intersection of global ecology, economy, and politics
Jim Yong Kim
Public health physician formulating new and successful models for treating and containing major diseases in the poorest regions of the world
Pedro A. Sanchez
Agronomist pioneering effective and economical solutions to problems of land productivity in some of the most arid regions of southern Africa
Nahh, that's not like it's going to help poor kids in Africa...
...for the guy who some day down the line gets 64.94.110.11. All these null routes probably won't go away that easily. He'll have lots of mystified users...
I hate bad software patents as much as the next guy, and that's why I took it upon myself to get educated on the process and language; and that's why I -read- these patents.
Good job. I think this is one of the bad ones:
The idea is very simple. Prior art or not, it ought to be unpatentable for "lack of inventive step". (In a sensible patent system, that is).
The actual coding is a matter of much perspiration and should be protected. That's what copyright is for. I think the US should follow the lead of the recent decision of the European Parliament and limit patentability.
If you bring in the journalists they're much more likely to see through SCOs smoke and mirrors, at least if you can feed them some of the right questions. I don't doubt that the rest of the audience will be asking plenty of critical questions as well, which will also influence the journalists.
Darl wants the media attention, it's just that he wants it differently hehe...
I've put up a list of voting results (Will stay ~1 week)
"Vote plenary" is the result (y=yes/n=no/x=not voted). "Vote" is the FFII voting recommendation. (from - - - to +++)
Europarl votes for Real Limits on Patentability
FFII News -- For Immediate Release -- Please Redistribute
See http://swpat.ffii.org/#news
Now we will have to see whether the European Commission is committed to "harmonisation and clarification" or only to patent owner interests.
Yesterday's threats uttered by Bolkestein against the European Parliament suggest the latter.
The detailed results are available on our site
http://swpat.ffii.org/news/03/plen0923/
It will now be our job to help the European Parliament assert itself against attempts by Bolkestein and patent lawyers wearing the hat of national governments to crush the directive project.
The current text has some remaining contraditions in it, but basically the thrust has been turned around. It has become our directive which we must help the European Parliament to defend. This is also a question of the European Parliament's role in an emerging democratic Europe. On the whole this is very good news for the EU.
--
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance tel. +49-89-18979927
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation http://swpat.ffii.org/
270,000 votes 2000 firms against software patents http://noepatents.org/
What amazes me is the enourmous amount of nonsense arguments.
:-)
Don't worry, they're probably equally bad in fields you don't know about
an article in an on-line paper (sorry, Dutch only) that puts forward two really ridiculous arguments
First of all the meat of it is anti-swpat arguments filtered through an MEP and a non-tech journalist. (My impression) What did you expect?
Then there is the Stallmann quote. I think you're too quick at condemning it. "Combinations of tones" can mean simple chords as well - where copyright doesn't apply. (Except perhaps very theoretically.) Anyway, bad choice of words (or something lost in translation)
My first conclusion is that we are all talking emotions here, hampering clear sight and reasoning on what this is all about. I think this is all mainly about a big company located in in Redmond.
If we're talking emotions it's a lot more about "protecting free software" than about "stopping Redmond". (Need not be equivalent). In fact, Microsoft got slammed pretty hard by the eolas case, just like Bill predicted in 1991. There's also the e-tailers. And when it comes to non-slashdotters, the emotions may pretty often be pro-swpat as well.
Stop the misinformation please. The editors have been fooled. This guy, on the other hand knows what he's talking about.
That letter was just one small part of a huge lobbying campaign, primarily directed by the FFII.org. Good they wrote it, though.
As for Americans, well perhaps we can legally ship pirated music out of Saudia Arabia...
One call from the RIAA later the Saudi anti-terror police descends on you. You wouldn't want that.
From the article, my emphasis:
And the most obnoxious feature of the law was that some authors outlived their copyright. Their most popular works would go into public domain while they were still alive and counting on the income.
I beg your pardon?! The law says (said) "copyright expires after 52 yrs" yet the author is surprised that it actually does?
There's plenty of financial institutions willing to take some of his money in return for a guaranteed monthly payment when he comes of age. If he wants Congress to do this for him it's fine with me, but copyright law is the wrong place to do it. Rather, copyright is supposed to "promote science" - that won't happen through nuking the public domain in the service of authors with lacking predictive skills. It's bad enough as it is with the PD being nuked in the service of mouse-infested corporations.
If he produces something that people are willing to pay for, more power to him. It is a sweet deal.
Yes. Too sweet. The deal (copyright term) is set by Congress, but they're not supposed to subsidise authors, they're supposed "to promote progress of the sciences". When they extend copyright they diminish the public domain and this loss must be properly compensated by encouraging new works. Of course this balance act will not allow for life-long copyright terms.
I called 1-703-742-0914 and got Network Solutions. After jumping through a couple of menus i got personal service (no waiting time, so much for slashdotting). I was asked for my name and my email address, and what domain name I was talking about. I said it was about all unregistered .com and .net names ;-) I mentioned sitefinder and she told me it was a new service (yada yada) and asked me to contact sitefinder@verisign-grs.com. (Ironically, I misheard that as verisign-grf.com and got...Sitefinder!!)
Now, what should I do with that email address?
All accredited registrars have agreed with ICANN to obtain contact information from registrants, to provide it publicly by a Whois service, and to investigate and correct any reported inaccuracies in contact information for domain names registered through them.
Reports submitted through this facility will be forwarded to the appropriate registrar for handling, and the progress of your report will be tracked.
Hmm, there seems to be a problem with the whois information for qawsedrf.net. Registrar must have a problem, I should probably fill out the form...
You'd have to sit all day measuring length and curvature of particle tracks
Nowadays the task is (of course) left to computers but back then it was done by female office workers, many of them now married to particle physicists...
Actually "computer" used to mean a person, not a machine. Pretty boring I guess - read "Bridge over River Kwai" for an example.
The site czsdfjasfasd.net is running Apache on Linux.
OS, Web Server and Hosting History for czsdfjasfasd.net
OS: Linux
Server: Apache
Last changed: 16-Sep-2003
IP address: 64.94.110.11
Netblock Owner: VeriSign/Network Solutions
The poster implicitly assumes that he has unencumbered alternatives to .NET. That may be wrong. Who knows how many patents Python infringes? Perl?
Get used to it. Even though Python was both invented and coded by Guido van Rossum, someone else may hold crucial patents. The only way to be sure is to check all applicable patents. If you don't feel like that either just ignore the question, or fight software patents
Another route is Knoppix with KDE CVS. Never tried it though, YMMV, yada yada...
Btw I don't think KDE should take all the honour for Konstruct. After all it was "inspired by GARNOME" - good to see idea exchange across the major Free desktops.
As soon as it is mandatory for cars to have transmitting GPS recievers to track their movements on highways, then it will become standard issue in cities and other areas. Call me paranoid, but I don't WANT the government tracking me like that.
You're definitely right. It baffles me that an ESA press release says that vehicles "will be tracked by satellites". The Galileo system will have a "Search A Rescue" function, but this doesn't seem feasible for tracking every EU car. Was it written by some clueless marketdroid, or did I lose my clue?
Anyway, the system is implementable with no vehicle tracking - what is needed is a black box logging fees payable. (It could log position as well, but doesn't need to.)
Geothermal is great. In Iceland.
You don't have to be in a geologically active zone to use geothermal. Denmark has no earthquakes or volcanoes but geothermal heating looks feasible in many places. A plant is under construction in Copenhagenand one is already running in Thisted
look at Denmark. They are currently working on converting 90% of their entire COUNTRY to using solely wind power.
;-)
Hmmm. I'm danish and I never heard of that. Yes, we do have windmills, but TheSyncs comment seems a lot more accurate.
It should also be noted that wind power is quite expensive. The reason it is used is because the government subsidizes wind power, but taxes coal power. (Most of Denmark is coal powered, how's that for environmentally friendly?) With our current right-wing government[*] these subsidies are being lowered.
We did gain something from the subsidies though. The associated research has made danish wind power industry a prominent global player - good for employment. I lean toward thinking we should be investing in wave power research now, but this isn't happening - someone else will beat us to it.
[*] Right wing in the danish sense. In the american sense they're still a bunch of socialist sissies