Larry Lessig, Eldred counsel and all-around bad-ass, put aside his obligations for the morning on his visit to Japan to pen this response (typos retained for the grammar nerds):
More SCO fud, this time insulting the constitution
I apologize for the silence, but weve been in Japan this week announcing iCommons in Japan. (More on that soon). But after reading this extraordinary document by Darl McBride of SCO infamy, I could resist canceling this morning meetings to respond.
From the start of this pathetic lawsuit, Eben Moglen of the Free Software Foundation has argued that there was nothing behind the SCO claims. His arguments are persuasive. But if you want a clue of just how clueless this case is, consider the constitutional arguments made by SCO.
McBride's argument is grounded in the Constitution. (Well, close to the constitution. He quotes the text of the constitution to be:
Congress shall have Power [t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, open-source advocates argue against copyright and patent laws, and whatever measures they take to by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
Actually, the framers didn't say anything about "open source advocates.")
As he rightly is argues, the Constitution requires that Congress only grant copyrights where those copyrights "promote the Progress of Science." Thus, if Congress granted copyrights in a context where they didn't "promote progress" one might well ask whether such a law was constitutional (e.g., a law that extended the terms of existing copyrights, but let's leave that aside for the moment).
But the key move in the McBride-FUD is his claim that proponents of free software and open source software are somehow against copyright.
He claims that "GPL is exactly opposite in its effect from the 'copyright' laws adopted by the US Congress and the European Union"; that "Red Hat has aggressively lobbied Congress to eliminate software patents and copyrights"; that "the issue is clear: do you support copyrights and ownership of intellectual property as envisioned by our elected officials in Congress and the European Union, or do you support "free" - as in free from ownership - intellectual property envisioned by the Free Software Foundation, Red Hat and others?"; that "SCO argues that the authority of Congress under the U.S. Constitution to "promote the Progress of Science and the useful arts" inherently includes a profit motive, and that protection for this profit motive includes a Constitutional dimension"; and that "We believe that the "progress of science" is best advanced by vigorously protecting the right of authors and inventors to earn a profit from their work."
Let's take each of these claims in turn:
"GPL is exactly opposite in its effect from the 'copyright' laws adopted by the US Congress and the European Union"
Despite RMS's aversion to the term, the GPL trades on a property right that the laws of the US and EU grant "authors" for their creative work. A property right means that the owner of the right has the right to do with his property whatever he wishes, consistent with the laws of the land. If he chooses to give his property away, that does not make it any less a property right. If he chooses to sell it for $1,000,000, that doesn't make it any less a property right. And if he chooses to license it on the condition that source code be made free, that doesn't make it
Diebold voting machines run Windows CE... a properly tailored worm could take advantage of their code (especially if it is as poorly written as the rest of their elections software) and bring an election day to a halt. Also note that they don't have to get the drivers and CE software certified by states and feds. as they claim it is COTS (commercial off the shelf) eventhough they write tons of code in house for CE.
For more see Jim March's comments to the CA Secretary of State here
could someone in Nevada please go to the courthouse and get a copy of the complaint? It could really help those of us willing to take action to know what Mr. Nemitz specific claims are.... and the images on his website are not sufficient considering that the briefs are available to the public.
Joe
Subject: DoJ uses Word's "Highlight" tool to redact, doesn't work
Hi Declan, Dave:
A HARD LESSON TO LEARN: don't use Microsoft Word's "Highlight tool" with the color set to black to redact documents--one can still copy and paste "highlighted" text!
The really interesting part about this DoJ case is reading the un-redacted document and seeing what was "blacked out" under FOIA exemptions (un-redacted document is here: http://www.thememoryhole.org/feds/doj-attor ney-div ersity-unredacted.pdf ).
I wonder how many other electronic FOIA-released documents are out there where a simple copy and paste will reveal redactions?
Pertinent paragraph:
"It turns out the [DoJ's] report began its life as a Microsoft Word document, and whoever was in charge of sanitizing it for public release did so by using Word's highlight tool, with the highlight color set to black, according to an analysis by Tim Sullivan, CEO of activePDF, a maker of server-side PDF tools. The simple and convenient technique would have been perfectly effective had the end product been a printed document, but it was all but useless for an electronic one."
Joe
--- http://www.securityfocus.com/news/7272
Justice e-censorship gaffe sparks controversy
By Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus Oct 22 2003 3:46PM
A government watchdog group Wednesday accused the Justice Department of improperly censoring portions of a key report on internal workplace diversity, after online activists successfully unmasked the blacked-out portions of an electronic copy of the document.
The 186-page report was released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act last week and posted to Justice Department's website in Adobe's "Portable Document File" (PDF) format. But the department blacked out vast portions of the document's text, citing an exemption to FOIA that permits agencies to keep internal policy deliberations private.
The text didn't stay concealed for long. On Tuesday a website called the Memory Hole, dedicated to preserving endangered documents, published a complete version of the report, with the opaque black rectangles that once covered half of it completely removed. Memory Hole publisher Russ Kick won't say how he unmasked it, but experimentation shows that the concealed text could be selected and copied using nothing more than Adobe's free Acrobat Reader. Once copied, the text is easily pasted into another document and read.
It turns out the report began its life as a Microsoft Word document, and whoever was in charge of sanitizing it for public release did so by using Word's highlight tool, with the highlight color set to black, according to an analysis by Tim Sullivan, CEO of activePDF, a maker of server-side PDF tools. The simple and convenient technique would have been perfectly effective had the end product been a printed document, but it was all but useless for an electronic one. "Using Acrobat, I'm actually able to move the black boxes around," says Sullivan. "The text is still there."...
What about people out there (like the EFF, which publishes all its stuff on p2p networks) that use these services for legitimate purposes... sounds like they'll be charged as well... how is this going to discriminate legit file-sharing from non?
The Parker Jotter, hands down, is the best pen for the price. It's typically US$ 6.00, and one refill will usually last until you loose the damn thing... it's available in ball-point or gel ink (the latter is more inky for those of you who like that) and fine, medium and the larger width (hard? thick?)...
PJ (the paralegal behind Groklaw) is a girl... and the site has moved to Groklaw.com.
Somebody please find a copy of the goddamn SCO motion to dismiss the redhat litigation in Delaware... what does it take to get a slashdotter to go down to the DE district court, photocopy the document and scan it in?
I'd hate to be totally paranoid... but someone should run ethereal while opening the power point slideshow (I'll settle for the converted version)... Power Point presentations can have macros right? That would be such a kick in the pants to have SCO put something in a power point document... (duck)
Man someone should doctor up this photo so that Slashdot would have two borg icons... we could replace caldera with the SCO-mcbride-borg adaptation... if only I was an artist.
Everyone's saying this but I don't buy it.
There was code-like context... I bet someone around/. could pull something useful out of this... everyone reads these articles to the letter. Showing obfuscated code is still more information than showing a black slide.
man it would be sweet to be able to examine the SCO code... (to SCO employees) someone be a hero... your company is tanking anyway, and will continue to tank.
Here's a good, recent Q&A with RMS that should have been included in the article list... here.
A pertinent quote:
TRB: Does the fact that, as is often pointed out, the GPL has not yet been tested in court concern you?
RMS: No wise person looks forward to a major battle, even if he expects to win it. Rather than being concerned that we have not yet tested the GPL in court, I'm encouraged by the fact that we have been successful for years in enforcing the GPL without needing to go to court. Many companies have looked at the odds and decided not to gamble on overturning the GPL. That's not the same as proof, but it is reassuring.
are they sure they know where Gene Simmons is? There's a few other upright-walking apes that I would want to locate before claiming that we see a new species!
Re:The article is misleading on key points
on
More on Spintronics
·
· Score: 1
bullshit... you haven't even read the damn article. Being an academic, I would say that the paper being in Science and the researchers being from Stanford are big. You can't write off the whole article based on the abstract... and I would put money down on their side against a debate with you in a hearbeat. Get bent.
Here is the counterclaim... in tiff and pdf (these are very large and ugly files, probably in need of a large and ugly mirror/torrent... somebody mirror these, post a reply and mod them up!).
Thought I'd point \.ers to an interesting (although spooky) paper out in the September 2003 issue of the Journal of Corporate Finance (Elsevier) that is along this vein of attempting to "harness market knowledge".
It shows that the stock market had effectively decided which shuttle contractor was responsible for the Challenger disaster within minutes of seeing the explosion come across the news wire.
Here's the citation:
Michael T. Maloney and J. Harold Mulherin.
The complexity of price discovery in an efficient market: the stock market reaction to the Challenger crash, Journal of Corporate Finance,
Volume 9, Issue 4, September 2003, Pages 453-479.
damn straigt!!! and if no one noticed, the Creative Commons "Common Content" registry just went live... you could fill your shared folder with stuff from that!
Slashdot Mirror
Larry Lessig, Eldred counsel and all-around bad-ass, put aside his obligations for the morning on his visit to Japan to pen this response (typos retained for the grammar nerds):
More SCO fud, this time insulting the constitution
For more see Jim March's comments to the CA Secretary of State here
could someone in Nevada please go to the courthouse and get a copy of the complaint? It could really help those of us willing to take action to know what Mr. Nemitz specific claims are.... and the images on his website are not sufficient considering that the briefs are available to the public. Joe
I don't think the slashdot poster was fully able to highlight the gravity of this:
O ct ober/000143.html
r ney-div ersity-unredacted.pdf
...
http://politechbot.com/pipermail/politech/2003-
Subject: DoJ uses Word's "Highlight" tool to redact, doesn't work
Hi Declan, Dave:
A HARD LESSON TO LEARN: don't use Microsoft Word's "Highlight tool"
with the color set to black to redact documents--one can still copy
and paste "highlighted" text!
The really interesting part about this DoJ case is reading the
un-redacted document and seeing what was "blacked out" under FOIA
exemptions (un-redacted document is here:
http://www.thememoryhole.org/feds/doj-atto
).
I wonder how many other electronic FOIA-released documents are out
there where a simple copy and paste will reveal redactions?
Pertinent paragraph:
"It turns out the [DoJ's] report began its life as a Microsoft Word
document, and whoever was in charge of sanitizing it for public
release did so by using Word's highlight tool, with the highlight
color set to black, according to an analysis by Tim Sullivan, CEO of
activePDF, a maker of server-side PDF tools. The simple and convenient
technique would have been perfectly effective had the end product been
a printed document, but it was all but useless for an electronic one."
Joe
---
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/7272
Justice e-censorship gaffe sparks controversy
By Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus Oct 22 2003 3:46PM
A government watchdog group Wednesday accused the Justice Department
of improperly censoring portions of a key report on internal workplace
diversity, after online activists successfully unmasked the
blacked-out portions of an electronic copy of the document.
The 186-page report was released to the public under the Freedom of
Information Act last week and posted to Justice Department's website
in Adobe's "Portable Document File" (PDF) format. But the department
blacked out vast portions of the document's text, citing an exemption
to FOIA that permits agencies to keep internal policy deliberations
private.
The text didn't stay concealed for long. On Tuesday a website called
the Memory Hole, dedicated to preserving endangered documents,
published a complete version of the report, with the opaque black
rectangles that once covered half of it completely removed. Memory
Hole publisher Russ Kick won't say how he unmasked it, but
experimentation shows that the concealed text could be selected and
copied using nothing more than Adobe's free Acrobat Reader. Once
copied, the text is easily pasted into another document and read.
It turns out the report began its life as a Microsoft Word document,
and whoever was in charge of sanitizing it for public release did so
by using Word's highlight tool, with the highlight color set to black,
according to an analysis by Tim Sullivan, CEO of activePDF, a maker of
server-side PDF tools. The simple and convenient technique would have
been perfectly effective had the end product been a printed document,
but it was all but useless for an electronic one. "Using Acrobat, I'm
actually able to move the black boxes around," says Sullivan. "The
text is still there."
is here.
What about people out there (like the EFF, which publishes all its stuff on p2p networks) that use these services for legitimate purposes... sounds like they'll be charged as well... how is this going to discriminate legit file-sharing from non?
The Parker Jotter, hands down, is the best pen for the price. It's typically US$ 6.00, and one refill will usually last until you loose the damn thing... it's available in ball-point or gel ink (the latter is more inky for those of you who like that) and fine, medium and the larger width (hard? thick?)...
Hubble is hardly Earth-based... tell that to the astronauts that routinely have to service it at amazing price and effort!
someone please post the PDF of this court document... we could all use it!
Somebody please find a copy of the goddamn SCO motion to dismiss the redhat litigation in Delaware... what does it take to get a slashdotter to go down to the DE district court, photocopy the document and scan it in?
Check out Mike LaVella's pinstriped computer done by Dirty Donny.
How about "We've come to take your code"
I'd hate to be totally paranoid... but someone should run ethereal while opening the power point slideshow (I'll settle for the converted version)... Power Point presentations can have macros right? That would be such a kick in the pants to have SCO put something in a power point document... (duck)
Man someone should doctor up this photo so that Slashdot would have two borg icons... we could replace caldera with the SCO-mcbride-borg adaptation... if only I was an artist.
Everyone's saying this but I don't buy it. There was code-like context... I bet someone around /. could pull something useful out of this... everyone reads these articles to the letter. Showing obfuscated code is still more information than showing a black slide.
man it would be sweet to be able to examine the SCO code... (to SCO employees) someone be a hero... your company is tanking anyway, and will continue to tank.
A pertinent quote:
are they sure they know where Gene Simmons is? There's a few other upright-walking apes that I would want to locate before claiming that we see a new species!
bullshit... you haven't even read the damn article. Being an academic, I would say that the paper being in Science and the researchers being from Stanford are big. You can't write off the whole article based on the abstract... and I would put money down on their side against a debate with you in a hearbeat. Get bent.
Patent numbers that IBM claims SCO infringes are 4814746, 4821211, 4953209, and 5805785.
Could someone post the fucking IBM filing so us law-geeks can read it? I can't find it anywhere...
There goes SCO's stock price... those sons of bitches... it was down by 15% at about 12:30pm PST... Here's the link... I check it daily.
It shows that the stock market had effectively decided which shuttle contractor was responsible for the Challenger disaster within minutes of seeing the explosion come across the news wire.
Here's the citation:
Michael T. Maloney and J. Harold Mulherin.
The complexity of price discovery in an efficient market: the stock market reaction to the Challenger crash, Journal of Corporate Finance, Volume 9, Issue 4, September 2003, Pages 453-479.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0929-1199(02)00055-X
finally RFIDs are being used for something decent... keeping my beer full!
damn straigt!!! and if no one noticed, the Creative Commons "Common Content" registry just went live... you could fill your shared folder with stuff from that!