This is an important development that doesn't get the attention it deserves. Meanwhile, U.S. schools are almost completely dominated by proprietary software -- could it be that in not too long a timespan ( 20 years?) the U.S. will start to become an intellectual ghetto? I mean, the ratio of engineers and CS majors is dropping in this country compared to MBAs/lawyers. Anyway -- here it comes: I for one welcome our new Brazilian street-urchin overlords!
My biggest beef with your various takes is that you color China as some sort of immoral IP scofflaw - perhaps I imply too much, but probably not. When it comes to IP, morality and ethics factors in not at all for current U.S. businesses. If we, the U.S., were really that concerned with the Chinese making off with IP, then we'd be actively pursuing regime change within that country, and not letting companies like Cisco build the Great Firewall of China, which only strengthens the power of said regime. It is very convenient for U.S. companies to play the IP morality card, because this gives them an edge in trade negotiations, but I'm sorry, I just don't buy the "U.S.-style IP laws and proprietary software is good for us all" lines. Save that FUD for the Party conventioneers. At least just call it what it is, which is conflicting interests trying to get over on the other by any means availible.
IBM knows they are taking a big gamble by focusing on OSS.
Every license is a gamble - and if IBM, as you say, is constantly assessing its positions regarding the GPL, they have pretty consistently found the GPL to be a very good gamble.
The conclusion of the researchers that having intellectual curiosity, etc. is somehow a genetic defect - a "disorder" that needs to be cured, speaks more to the dysfunction of our society rather than to the so-called "disorder" they have identified. God forbid that we should have an interest outside of our normal avenue of study or work-life worlds. This is exactly what our society needs (i.e. more intellectual curiosity and a greater understanding of the world and things outside our area of expertise).
This really seems to be a problem within the field of psychology today. The current trend seems to lean towards conformity, anything that veers from the path must be "stamped out" - we must all be good little worker ants. Of course, much of this research is funded by the uber drug companies that stand to reap enormous profits from new "disorders". Witness the massive rise in use of the anti-depressents such as Prozac, Paxil, et. al.
Without curiosity, an individual is unable to adapt as rapidly. While the lack of the ability to adapt and lack of curiosity may suit some corporate managers as desirable traits for their employees. It is a fact that many of the greatest achievements, both from a scientific as well as an artistic standpoint, came from individuals who might today be labelled as suffering from "disorder", and stifled from achieving greatness through prescription meds.
I believe that it is in everyone's best interest to look outside their everyday lives, to be curious and to ask questions. It is only through looking for the "big picture" that we can truly achieve great things. These researchers are small-minded conformist puds. It wouldn't surprise me if their funding wasn't recieved from one of the mega-corps drug companies I mentioned earlier (either that or they could be bucking for some sort of research money from one of the companies).
The reason that Chinese companies would choose the GPL is because it has proven to be wildly popular with the widest array of people that use and develop OSS. IBM suports the GPL and backs that up with money and developers. But then I guess you think IBM is just stupid? The hardware companies will be making their money off hardware, not software, so it will behoove them to appeal to the largest, most diverse community.
You stated:
"...nobody in China gives a lick about intellectual property anyway."
Actually, I think the Chinese care a lot about IP, and that concern will manifest itself in China and Asia in general through the embracing of a license that puts them in the best position to compete with the worlds biggest IP horder, the U.S., and that license would be the GPL.
I don't know where all the trolls come from whenever file-sharing pops up in the
headline, but I'm gonna bite hard on all the flamebait I see swirling around
this topic.
For starters, a big fuck you from a very deep and visceral place
within my soul to all you motherfuckers who can defend an entity
as corrupt and evil as the RIAA. This is an organization that has actively
sought to do away with due process and seek vigilante justice through
legislative means. We are talking about an organization comprised of companies
that wield incredible power, and control the content of what has been estimated
at 90% of everything the Americans watch or listen to media-wise - companies that have
been granted an unprecedented stanglehold on the channel of
distribution that restricts any sort of competition. Want an example? Cable
television. I have to pay the RIAA companies for every one of those channels I
don't won't, including Fox fucking news, just to get the few that I do want.
We are talking about an organization (the RIAA) that has actively promoted the DRM so that
their content, and their content exclusively, can be watched or listened to on
the majority of electronic devices that people use. So all you delusional motherfuckers still thinking you are going to strike it rich with one of the heavies can forget about any sort of independent every making you any sort of money if your desires for a more empowered RIAA come to fruition. Any artist that is too
stupid, too lazy, or just too plain greedy to sign their souls away will
get no love from me.
Just to let you know, I'm an artist. And I'm going to
let people copy, share, and do whatever the hell else they want with my art.
Why? Because I believe my art has integrity, and therefore, the people that will
dig on it will more than likely have integrity too. Therefore, if they
can, they'll support me. If they can't, I'd rather they be able to access my
art than to have to do without. Maybe this isn't the best way to make a fortune.
Maybe I won't even earn a decent living. Then again, maybe by making my art
freely available I'll reach more people and touch more lives than I ever could
have hoped for otherwise.
Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, told a technology conference in Washington on Wednesday. "This technology can make our country more secure and prevent the nightmare vision of George Orwell at the same time."
"errr...that is, if consumers and companies completely rebel against it and everything it stands for."
I can't believe he had the audacity to claim that he was somehow fighting the good fight against big, evil, faceless bureaucracies. Yeah, you're in it for the little guy Bill, sure. Sweet Jesus and may God help us if people like Gates can play themselves off as such.
Or maybe his logic something like this: "You see, it shouldn't be governments alone that create a totalitarian existence, no no no, that would be much too inefficient. It should be totalitarian governments that are controlled in the background by large, totalitarian companies and their respective associations - like the BSA and RIAA. Stupid Orwell was so random - he had it all wrong!"
I am getting so sick of this constant battle having to be waged just so I can have my right to freedom of speech and my right to earn a living with the tools that I choose. These are all being threatened by the basest of interests, a pure Machievellian credo.
A pondering/suggestion:
I think it is time to put our money where our mouths are, since it seems that at the present hour, this is the only way to be heard. The saying "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," seems to be apropos right now. I mean, there have got to be a least a million users of Linux that are aware of the issues at hand, earn their living in large part due to OSS and GPL'd software, either through coding or adminstering it, and/or both combined. I'd wager that at least a million or so of us could donate 100 U.S. dollars each to some general fund to promote the interests of OSS and GPL. I think it's time we all realized that our asses are on the line and if we don't put up a good fight now it's game over. How much is your freedom worth to you? How much is your time worth to you, and then consider the countless hours you will waste using proprietary once you no longer have a choice - not to mention the things you will never be able to do should you be forced to use only proprietary software. You can accuse me of being an alarmist, but it seems to me that this is the intention of the BSA et. al. These are ruthless, amoral people that aren't happy until they have total control, people who consider sharing a trait of "suckers".
Everyone on this site seems to want to bash RMS, but excuse me, where is Linus while this EU putsch is going down? I mean, if for no other reason, he should be a little concerned about his own rearend, because if things keep going the way they are, he'll be next in line for a lawsuit. You may not agree with everything RMS says, but at least he's out there doing battle. It's 5 til' midnight, doesn't Linus have anything to say about this. WTF! If not Linus, somebody in a leadership position needs to standup and ring the donation bell real loud and clear and lead the charge because We are losing the battle.
In emerging markets like Asia, where the tech industries are set to take off (China, for instance, which is greatly outdistancing the US in the number of technical professionals it is producing - a cursory visit to any graduate engineering program at a university near you will prove assertion). How will they challenge the megabucks of the oligopolies that have sweetheart deals with proprietary software companies to make their benchmarks sing? The only effective way to challenge them is to form consortiums that produce OSS to rival the proprietary offerings, be it benchmarks, or "user friendliness".
Personally, I think the best choice for a license that these companies could adopt would be the GPL:>
Jeez! I didn't say I wanted to take away short commands - I just said a lot of people would prefer not to have to learn *nix arcana.
I'm saying that we should give people a choice - build it and they will come. And if that happened, I think everyone would be better for it, cause I believe in the "many eyes" philosophy. Make the world of open source and free software as easy to enter as possible, and you'll have many more contributors in the long run. Fact is, even if a distro came out with something totally intuitive tomorrow, I'd still want to use the old commands a lot of the time, now that I've bothered to learn them.
Yes, you can pick up a book and learn the Linux FS in a day. The problem is, if you are not a full time geek, you will forget it in a week. That, to me, is the frustrating thing about using Linux - it is not a part time pursuit if you really want to learn how to admin your system. I would suggest that Gobo's concept should be extended to intuitive commands as well. Commands that are as close to administering your system with human language and/or human logic as possible - that seems to be the inevitable outcome when I look at the evolution of human interface with computers. I like Linux because of its stability, its potential, its license, the control it places with the individual, and the community that has built up around it, not because I feel any real loyalty to the archaic nature of the command line or the logic of its FS. Simply put, I like Linux because of the choice and empowerment it has bestowed on me, the individual.
That said, I feel like everyone should be able to understand what all the excitement is about, but I don't think that will happen until there is a shift of focus towards real usability. Look, Windows really isn't that intuitive, they could be trumped at their own claim to fame. Mandrake made a newbie friendly distro, and it has a near cult-like following. Isn't this just common sense? I'm learning to program, and personally, I'd rather be putting my resources on coding the "next big thing" that frittering away my time on some arcane admin detail.
Learning the Linux FS and the commands leaves one with a sense of accomplishment, and then once you put it down and have to relearn it, the frustration sets in.
I hate to admit it, cause I've spent a lot of time learning the "old way", but Gobo is on to something. The more intuitive and less frustrating an OS is to understand and admin, the more users you will have. Better yet, why not have a distro that gives people are real choice between the old way, a new, more intuitive way, or both?
Hmmm, - maybe the RIAA, MPAA really are bad and that's why they get bashed. I say fuck em', they are obsolete and on the wrong side of historical precedent. It is the artists who have talent - it is the artists I want to support, and now they have the ability to cut out the middle man. This will progress slowly but surely. The only way the RIAA and MPAA can keep this power shift from happening is by turning us into a police state, shredding our Constitution, and getting Congress to grant them vigilante powers - which they are doing, by the way. And I want to find common ground with these fascists because why?
I think people should support artist they like, don't get me wrong. But we need to empower the artists, not these bastards that are trying to screw us every which way.
The old rosy AI scenario - it will make everything happy happy joy joy. I call bullshit.
First, AI predictions have always gone way over the mark in their wildly optimistic assumptions. Namely, that we know anything about the dynamics of our higher abilities. We are far more complex and truly intelligent creatures than the AI mystics would give us credit for. AI sucks now and far into the future. We don't have a clue. AI will get better at performing specific left-brained tasks, but will always suck at creativity. You will always need the ghost in the machine (or the geek at the monitor, as the case may be). If I'm not right, then show me proof, and I'm not talking about some autistic, left-brained futurist loser making predictions.
The body of the unidentified man was found early on Wednesday by a passerby, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. Arpaio said the victim, who was in his 30s, had been shot at close range, his hands bound behind his back.
"We're positive that all the murders are related," Arpaio told Reuters.
Eight other illegal immigrants have been slain since last March, killed in much the same manner before being dumped by the roadside. All the victims were male, bound before they were killed and all but one of those murdered was shot.
- from CNN report 3-6-03; google: arizona border killings for more
The RIAA, Bill Gates, et al are such poor, helpless victims. I'm am so sick of absolutists on/. spewing this crap. Sorry, the question of copyright law is not black and white. Yes, copyright owners have a right to earn a good living. But don't give me this black and white, "you're either with us, or against us" propaganda - in a world where tens of thousands (if not more) literally die every day because of lack of information. And, yes, art is information. It is emotional information. Art shapes the way we view the world, it forms our perceptions of "reality". Beck is on record as saying art should be a right, not a privilege. Bowie, Prince and others have expressed similiar sentiments against the militancy and FUD of copyright absolutists. But no, sharing is bad - unamerican even. Please, I've worked at a community center with poverty level urban youth. Some of them used file-sharing programs. These are kids who sometimes couldn't afford the bus fare to get to the afterschool program, and some shithead is gonna tell me they are criminals for downloading a few songs off of Morpheus?!? File sharing goes a very short distance in providing some equity between the massively wealthy media corporations (who, I might add, benefit from the use of supposedly public property [e.g. cable lines running across publicly owned lands, public airwaves, etc. - these privileges that the media companies now consider their property effectively shut out any would-be competitors from entering their market.]) Media companies have been milking the cash cow for almost a century now. Ever hear of a major media company going bankrupt? Didn't think so. Shit, Time Warner bought AOL and they are still afloat. Because they know who to pay off to keep their stranglehold on the market. I read a quote from some media exec comparing file-sharing with the Holocaust. This guy, who probably wipes his ass with $100 bills, had the audacity to compare file sharing to the Holocaust. We are talking about totally amoral scumbags. The lowest form of life, these media execs. And they will put us all in lockdown if we let them. Forget about "owning" copywritten work. They want you to pay for it on a monthly basis! Or listen to it once, and then pftt! They are creaming their pants at the additional revenue streams they see as their God given right. And then, if they are "renting" their material, ownership rules no longer apply! And forget about playing it an alternate OS. DRM, Palladium, lobbying for vigilante police power that would land any private citizen in jail with felony charges. These very same executives, who market the most depraved, mysogynistic, machiavellian artists at the very highest levels of production to kids, these people are now trying to get sanctimonious and accuse literally tens of millions of their paying customers of being thieves. Excuse me, who are the fascists here? Van Morrison wrote a song about music company execs, and it wasn't a flattering portrait ("Big Time Operators" Too Long In Exile). And how many of you crying thief have never made or listened to a mixed tape. Uh huh, thought so.
Oh, the poor copyright holders, they'll be standing in line at the soup kitchens before we know it. Courtney Love will have to become a whore again. What a bunch of bullshit. This is simply class warfare. If I respect an artist, if they are talented, and I believe they have integrity, I will buy their works, otherwise I won't. Same goes with software companies. It makes sense doesn't it? Or are we consumers just not to be trusted. Bullshit.
Slashdot Mirror
This is an important development that doesn't get the attention it deserves. Meanwhile, U.S. schools are almost completely dominated by proprietary software -- could it be that in not too long a timespan ( 20 years?) the U.S. will start to become an intellectual ghetto? I mean, the ratio of engineers and CS majors is dropping in this country compared to MBAs/lawyers. Anyway -- here it comes: I for one welcome our new Brazilian street-urchin overlords!
My biggest beef with your various takes is that you color China as some sort of immoral IP scofflaw - perhaps I imply too much, but probably not. When it comes to IP, morality and ethics factors in not at all for current U.S. businesses. If we, the U.S., were really that concerned with the Chinese making off with IP, then we'd be actively pursuing regime change within that country, and not letting companies like Cisco build the Great Firewall of China, which only strengthens the power of said regime. It is very convenient for U.S. companies to play the IP morality card, because this gives them an edge in trade negotiations, but I'm sorry, I just don't buy the "U.S.-style IP laws and proprietary software is good for us all" lines. Save that FUD for the Party conventioneers. At least just call it what it is, which is conflicting interests trying to get over on the other by any means availible.
IBM knows they are taking a big gamble by focusing on OSS.
Every license is a gamble - and if IBM, as you say, is constantly assessing its positions regarding the GPL, they have pretty consistently found the GPL to be a very good gamble.
This really seems to be a problem within the field of psychology today. The current trend seems to lean towards conformity, anything that veers from the path must be "stamped out" - we must all be good little worker ants. Of course, much of this research is funded by the uber drug companies that stand to reap enormous profits from new "disorders". Witness the massive rise in use of the anti-depressents such as Prozac, Paxil, et. al.
Without curiosity, an individual is unable to adapt as rapidly. While the lack of the ability to adapt and lack of curiosity may suit some corporate managers as desirable traits for their employees. It is a fact that many of the greatest achievements, both from a scientific as well as an artistic standpoint, came from individuals who might today be labelled as suffering from "disorder", and stifled from achieving greatness through prescription meds.
I believe that it is in everyone's best interest to look outside their everyday lives, to be curious and to ask questions. It is only through looking for the "big picture" that we can truly achieve great things. These researchers are small-minded conformist puds. It wouldn't surprise me if their funding wasn't recieved from one of the mega-corps drug companies I mentioned earlier (either that or they could be bucking for some sort of research money from one of the companies).
You stated: "...nobody in China gives a lick about intellectual property anyway."
Actually, I think the Chinese care a lot about IP, and that concern will manifest itself in China and Asia in general through the embracing of a license that puts them in the best position to compete with the worlds biggest IP horder, the U.S., and that license would be the GPL.
For starters, a big fuck you from a very deep and visceral place within my soul to all you motherfuckers who can defend an entity as corrupt and evil as the RIAA. This is an organization that has actively sought to do away with due process and seek vigilante justice through legislative means. We are talking about an organization comprised of companies that wield incredible power, and control the content of what has been estimated at 90% of everything the Americans watch or listen to media-wise - companies that have been granted an unprecedented stanglehold on the channel of distribution that restricts any sort of competition. Want an example? Cable television. I have to pay the RIAA companies for every one of those channels I don't won't, including Fox fucking news, just to get the few that I do want.
We are talking about an organization (the RIAA) that has actively promoted the DRM so that their content, and their content exclusively, can be watched or listened to on the majority of electronic devices that people use. So all you delusional motherfuckers still thinking you are going to strike it rich with one of the heavies can forget about any sort of independent every making you any sort of money if your desires for a more empowered RIAA come to fruition. Any artist that is too stupid, too lazy, or just too plain greedy to sign their souls away will get no love from me.
Just to let you know, I'm an artist. And I'm going to let people copy, share, and do whatever the hell else they want with my art. Why? Because I believe my art has integrity, and therefore, the people that will dig on it will more than likely have integrity too. Therefore, if they can, they'll support me. If they can't, I'd rather they be able to access my art than to have to do without. Maybe this isn't the best way to make a fortune. Maybe I won't even earn a decent living. Then again, maybe by making my art freely available I'll reach more people and touch more lives than I ever could have hoped for otherwise.
"errr...that is, if consumers and companies completely rebel against it and everything it stands for."
I can't believe he had the audacity to claim that he was somehow fighting the good fight against big, evil, faceless bureaucracies. Yeah, you're in it for the little guy Bill, sure. Sweet Jesus and may God help us if people like Gates can play themselves off as such.
Or maybe his logic something like this: "You see, it shouldn't be governments alone that create a totalitarian existence, no no no, that would be much too inefficient. It should be totalitarian governments that are controlled in the background by large, totalitarian companies and their respective associations - like the BSA and RIAA. Stupid Orwell was so random - he had it all wrong!"
A pondering/suggestion:
I think it is time to put our money where our mouths are, since it seems that at the present hour, this is the only way to be heard. The saying "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," seems to be apropos right now. I mean, there have got to be a least a million users of Linux that are aware of the issues at hand, earn their living in large part due to OSS and GPL'd software, either through coding or adminstering it, and/or both combined. I'd wager that at least a million or so of us could donate 100 U.S. dollars each to some general fund to promote the interests of OSS and GPL. I think it's time we all realized that our asses are on the line and if we don't put up a good fight now it's game over. How much is your freedom worth to you? How much is your time worth to you, and then consider the countless hours you will waste using proprietary once you no longer have a choice - not to mention the things you will never be able to do should you be forced to use only proprietary software. You can accuse me of being an alarmist, but it seems to me that this is the intention of the BSA et. al. These are ruthless, amoral people that aren't happy until they have total control, people who consider sharing a trait of "suckers".
Everyone on this site seems to want to bash RMS, but excuse me, where is Linus while this EU putsch is going down? I mean, if for no other reason, he should be a little concerned about his own rearend, because if things keep going the way they are, he'll be next in line for a lawsuit. You may not agree with everything RMS says, but at least he's out there doing battle. It's 5 til' midnight, doesn't Linus have anything to say about this. WTF! If not Linus, somebody in a leadership position needs to standup and ring the donation bell real loud and clear and lead the charge because We are losing the battle.
In emerging markets like Asia, where the tech industries are set to take off (China, for instance, which is greatly outdistancing the US in the number of technical professionals it is producing - a cursory visit to any graduate engineering program at a university near you will prove assertion). How will they challenge the megabucks of the oligopolies that have sweetheart deals with proprietary software companies to make their benchmarks sing? The only effective way to challenge them is to form consortiums that produce OSS to rival the proprietary offerings, be it benchmarks, or "user friendliness".
Personally, I think the best choice for a license that these companies could adopt would be the GPL :>
Bob to Doug: "Hey eh, like, quit humping the rocket you fleshy-headed mutant!"
I'm saying that we should give people a choice - build it and they will come. And if that happened, I think everyone would be better for it, cause I believe in the "many eyes" philosophy. Make the world of open source and free software as easy to enter as possible, and you'll have many more contributors in the long run. Fact is, even if a distro came out with something totally intuitive tomorrow, I'd still want to use the old commands a lot of the time, now that I've bothered to learn them.
That said, I feel like everyone should be able to understand what all the excitement is about, but I don't think that will happen until there is a shift of focus towards real usability. Look, Windows really isn't that intuitive, they could be trumped at their own claim to fame. Mandrake made a newbie friendly distro, and it has a near cult-like following. Isn't this just common sense? I'm learning to program, and personally, I'd rather be putting my resources on coding the "next big thing" that frittering away my time on some arcane admin detail.
Learning the Linux FS and the commands leaves one with a sense of accomplishment, and then once you put it down and have to relearn it, the frustration sets in. I hate to admit it, cause I've spent a lot of time learning the "old way", but Gobo is on to something. The more intuitive and less frustrating an OS is to understand and admin, the more users you will have. Better yet, why not have a distro that gives people are real choice between the old way, a new, more intuitive way, or both?
I think people should support artist they like, don't get me wrong. But we need to empower the artists, not these bastards that are trying to screw us every which way.
First, AI predictions have always gone way over the mark in their wildly optimistic assumptions. Namely, that we know anything about the dynamics of our higher abilities. We are far more complex and truly intelligent creatures than the AI mystics would give us credit for. AI sucks now and far into the future. We don't have a clue. AI will get better at performing specific left-brained tasks, but will always suck at creativity. You will always need the ghost in the machine (or the geek at the monitor, as the case may be). If I'm not right, then show me proof, and I'm not talking about some autistic, left-brained futurist loser making predictions.
The body of the unidentified man was found early on Wednesday by a passerby, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. Arpaio said the victim, who was in his 30s, had been shot at close range, his hands bound behind his back.
"We're positive that all the murders are related," Arpaio told Reuters.
Eight other illegal immigrants have been slain since last March, killed in much the same manner before being dumped by the roadside. All the victims were male, bound before they were killed and all but one of those murdered was shot.
- from CNN report 3-6-03; google: arizona border killings for more
http://www.dontbuycds.org/
Oh, the poor copyright holders, they'll be standing in line at the soup kitchens before we know it. Courtney Love will have to become a whore again. What a bunch of bullshit. This is simply class warfare. If I respect an artist, if they are talented, and I believe they have integrity, I will buy their works, otherwise I won't. Same goes with software companies. It makes sense doesn't it? Or are we consumers just not to be trusted. Bullshit.