I'm 100% with you on this, however for this to have any sort of effect the mass media would have to make it an issue so that everybody, not just the people on/. , hear about it. Since this would be largely against their interests I doubt that they would talk about it. Untill or unless the general population starts educating themselves about these issues and the implications that they will have, we will all see our hard fought freedoms start slipping away.
Secondly, there is the little matter of...da-dum... DMCA. I'm pretty sure it makes DeCSS illegal
Yes but as I'm sure you're aware, the constitution hasq a precedence over any laws passed, including the DMCA. I'm sure you remember the Communications Decency Act or whatever it was called. It was a big deal when it was passed, but slowly the courts cought up with it and eventually the Supreme Court struck it down. I believe the same thing will happen here, we just haven't had the cases yet. Link to CDA Info
Intel's promises of processors to match and surpass those from amd, when they clearly can't deliver already cost them a lot of money. To start off some of their biggest customers, such as gateway did not receive the processors that Intel had promised and to cure their supply problems turned to AMD. Gateway did not sell any coputers with AMD chips until recently and was forced to do so because Intel was not able to deliver the processors that they were advertising. It seems that in this hyped up race to reach the 1Ghz mark, Intel has forgotten good business practices. If they were not able to produce 800Mhz chips in any quantities, what makes them think that they will be able to manufacture 1Ghz chips. The supply problems will continue and they will further alienate their customers. The second problem in this boneheaded move is that now AMD will be forced to release their 1Ghz chips. AMD however will be able to manufacture them in much larger quantities then Intel. The net result will be that if you want to be the first one with a 1Ghz PC on your block you will most likely end up going for an AMD chip simply because the 1Ghz vapor Pentium chip will not be available for sale anywhere.
As a side note, think long the 800Mhz Pentium has been out and then tell me where I can buy one.
What Amazon is doing simply can't be good for their bottom line. Clearly they will loose more customers over things like this they they will ever hope to gain. I used to shop there and will not do so anymore, and I suspect a lot of other people will do the same. In a situation where the compatition is only as far as pointing your browser at a new URL Amazon should be very carfull about their image with customers. The obvious question then is if this won't help their business then what is the point?
...there is now way that this will hold up in court. However keeping in mind the recent court rulings on anything that has to do with technology I'm sure some clueless judge would hold this up. I'm just wondering how long it will take for this unbelievably arrogant company to sue somebody. I've stopped shopping at amazon after they sued Barnes&Noble over the one click shopping feature and I'm urging everyone here to do the same. As little as we think we may be able to do about it as individuals, all you have to do is look at the recent etoys incident to see what large public uproar can do and how quickly it can turn their minds. The patent system was set up so that individuals and companies would be able to protect themselves and their investments. It seems that these days it has turned into an offensive tactic, means to an end. The end here being some sort of a basis for a lawsuit. After all if there is no reason to sue somebody you can always invent one.
The reason that the gui's on linux look don't look as professional as those created by the likes of Apple and of course MS is because those companies employ a large number of graphics artists and the sort who are good at making things look good. Then they put these things in front of people and ask them what they think. This has not been done in the gui's available for linux. While they may be technically sound, after all there is no lack of good programmers working on them, they are not as good looking because these programmers are good at writing code and not designing GUIs. I think there should be some sort of a public feedback system designed to help those working on these projects to make the GUIs look better. Of course people wouldn't always agree, but overall I think it would help. Getting some graphics artists involved in these projects would be of great help too. Things have definitely improved from a few years ago but we can still do better.
You can find a bunch of these at ebay. it seems that you'll end up paying a little over $300. Not a bad deal if you ask me. Here's the link on Ebay
Re:Why is this a "free speech" issue?
on
Victory in Holland
·
· Score: 1
"Librarians decide what to spend public money on. Publishers decide what is worthy of publishing. Bookstores decide what materials they will carry. Newspapers decide which books will be reviewed. In the print medium, restrictions exist. They should exist in some form in the electronic world, too."
These restrictions exist because it would simply be impractical to have every book ever printed in the library or print a review of all books published in the newspapers. In the electronic world comparisons like this are simply irrelevant and there is absolutely no logistical reason why I should not be able to access any site on the internet I want to. In fact it takes no effort to carry all sites on the internet as opposed to having to install filtering software in order to put those restrictions into effect. How come you never hear about problems like this in Europe. Is it because all the fanatical fundamentalist Christians have moved to the US. People in Europe are much more open about things like this and despite proclaiming to have the worlds largest democracy, here in America we are still afraid that a child might be exposed to a nipple on a tv or computer screen. The horror. He would be scarred for life. It seems hypocrisy has no limits here.
I got this quote from an article at news.com and I quote "LoriJo Schepers, a spokeswoman for Holland Area Citizens Voting YES! To Protect Our Children, said last night that the defeat won't end her up's fight to get filters installed on the library computers."
First of all what makes these people think that they have a right to impose their ignorant ideas on the rest of us when clearly they have been defeated by a reasonably democratic process. Give it up. The people have spoken and it looks like they're against it. But no, we have to protect the children. Why is it that everytime they try to limit our rights it's in the name of protecting the children. I'm all for "protecting the children" but stop using them as some sort of a rallying cause. After all what politician would say "against" when asked if he is for or against protecting the children. These people preach morality when they have absolutely none and they are yhe only thing we should protect our children from.
Re:Loosing the Iron Curtain
on
A New DeCSS
·
· Score: 1
I would maintain that in fact it was because the USSR became sloppy and the KGB grew weak that Eastern Europe was mainly allowed to leave.
I don't think you know what you are talking about here.
I will admit that in fact people getting neadlessly killed must have been quite a thril (you usually can't interview dead people because they are well dead but the dieing give us a clue and they don't usualyl like it one bit).
Would you tell the family of a soldier who died in WWII that he needlessly died, that didn't have to go to fight. Well, if that soldier didn't go to fight then today Europe would be half Nazi and half communist.
Re:Reminds me of a good quote
on
A New DeCSS
·
· Score: 1
Frankly I would think that most intelligent people would realize that it is better to fight another day. This is why we still have Communism in Eastern Europe, right. Oh , I forgot we don't because a few brave individuals decided that the freedom of an entire nation was worth more than one life. I lived in Eastern Europe during the 80's so don't tell me what really happened. The comments you have made are possibly some of the most ignorant I have ever read here on slashdot and for that matter anywhere. Countless millions have died so we can live in the security we live in today and say something like that. I have no words for what I think of you. "If we don't take action now we'll settle for nothing later" RATM
The simple fact here is that companies like Time Warner are not afraid of the relatively few individuals who are going to make illegal copies of their work. What they are afraid of is that they won't be able to control the distribution of their material. Digitalization of everything from books to movies has made it possible for these companies to control not only when something will be released but also where and for how long. They are able to distribute US versions of DVD's which will not play in Europe for example and they are able to set restrictions on the use of the material that they distribute. If cracking the technology that enables these measures was not restricted then the whole scheme would not work. After all why sell a book once when you can sell it five times to the same person. If this isn't stopped now, we'll all end up paying for it. Of course I don't have much hope that anything we say now will have any effect. It looks like our fate has been sealed.
There would be no antitrust case because MS doesn't have a monopoly in the console business. They are entering a new and unrelated industry and just because they have a stockpile of cash doesn't mean they are a monopoly. Besides there is plenty of competition in the industry right now so an antitrust case would not fly.
If they stepped aside when a cop with a warrant said "move, I'm searching your stuff on behalf of your boss" then we've got bigger problems
It's sad to say but I don't remember a court ruling any time recently that was in favor of an individual and not some corporation. As opposed to some states , the federal judges are not elected so it's not like they're getting campaign contributions from these companies. I guess we've been reduced to the true definition of a work force. "What you're not working!!!" "Put him in jail and seize all his property!!" I'm expecting that this will happen soon.
The big bad company won't arrest you. The will make sure laws get passed on the basis of which the police will arest you. So in qthe end it's the same thing. Don't be so naive.
I read the article and maybe I'm missing something but it made no mention of any firsdt or last place overall standings. Why use these attention grabbing headlines when they have absolutely nothing to do with the story? Or maybe you guys are talking about some other story. Any way, as far as the article itself, it wasn't to technical but it did show that if you have a staff of incompetent netwotk admins. then your only bet would be to set up a Win 2000 server. If you ask me this is not a very good reason for choosing your NOS. I'll agree that setting up a UNIX box might at first be more complicated but it's the performance and reliability that counts when you're running a server.
The patent system is designed to encourage innovation, and we spent thousands of hours developing our 1-Click® shopping feature. This feature securely stores billing and shipping information so that returning customers need only click their mouse once, without re-entering or re-confirming that information, to purchase selected items conveniently.
In recognition of the innovative and unique nature of the 1-Click® technology, the U.S. Patent Office awarded Patent No. 5,960,411 to Amazon.com on September 28, 1999.
We're pleased that the court recognized the innovation underlying our 1-Click® feature by granting a preliminary injunction barring barnesandnoble.com from using it while our suit is pending.
I hope you'll understand that we are unable to discuss this case any further as we are currently in litigation. Thank you for taking the time to share your views with us.
I've been following this whole Australian censorship thing here on slashdot and from other news sources and I'm concerned to say the least. I do not know very much about Australian law, but the question is how did it get to this? It's certainly not something I would expect from a country like Australia. Here in the US we've been enjoying our relative freedom on the internet with few government regulations but if this can happen in Australia, who knows what they can pull over us . Most people only hear on the news about internet porn, tie ins to columbine, and bomb recepies, and in the name of protecting the children they will agree to anything. There have been some boneheaded rulings by the US courts as well as some sane ones so it's hard to say where this is going.
It's not about financial success. financial success of these companies benefits all of us. I't about the fact that they are not responsible in how they use their power. I have nothing against anybody making as much money as they possibly can but you can't do it by any means necessary. In this case the end does not justify the means.
I don't get this. When news like this comes out everybody is all of a sudden angry at those "evil" corporations that try to make their own laws and do whatever they want to, yet when the story about the WTO protests came out people where asking where all the anger was coming from. Why the change of opinion. Is it because people are just to short-sighted and forget things like this , which have been happening on a regular basis.
I agree to most of what he has to say. I lived in an Eastern European country before the communism fell and in those days everyone knew who the enemy was. there was no doubt about what had to be done in order to change the situation, and everyone from the kids to the elderly had these same ideas. You didn't believe your government and the media because yopu knew what was behind them. Today in the US and similarly in Europe people are protesting and most have no idea why those people are protesting. the "enemy" isn't very clear cut but it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. The enemy that was taking away my rights before has now mutated and who do I point a finger at? Let's not expect any major change here, unfortunately, becayse as long as greed is what drives most people the corporations will reflect that because after all they are us. It makes me laugh when I hear christmas carols being played through the speakers in every department store and mall this time of year with posters plastered all over advertising all the great holliday deals.
"Crawl with me into tomorrow Or I'll drag you to your grave I'm deep inside your children They'll betray you in my name"
I'm really disappointed to see these responses on slashdot. I was under the impression that slashdot readers were more intelligent than the average joe. Instead they seem to be reciting word for word what has been being spoonfed by the mass media.
"Just victims of the in-house drive-by they say jump, you say how high"
Slashdot Mirror
I'm 100% with you on this, however for this to have any sort of effect the mass media would have to make it an issue so that everybody, not just the people on /. , hear about it. Since this would be largely against their interests I doubt that they would talk about it. Untill or unless the general population starts educating themselves about these issues and the implications that they will have, we will all see our hard fought freedoms start slipping away.
Secondly, there is the little matter of...da-dum... DMCA. I'm pretty sure it makes DeCSS illegal
Yes but as I'm sure you're aware, the constitution hasq a precedence over any laws passed, including the DMCA. I'm sure you remember the Communications Decency Act or whatever it was called. It was a big deal when it was passed, but slowly the courts cought up with it and eventually the Supreme Court struck it down. I believe the same thing will happen here, we just haven't had the cases yet.
Link to CDA Info
Intel's promises of processors to match and surpass those from amd, when they clearly can't deliver already cost them a lot of money. To start off some of their biggest customers, such as gateway did not receive the processors that Intel had promised and to cure their supply problems turned to AMD. Gateway did not sell any coputers with AMD chips until recently and was forced to do so because Intel was not able to deliver the processors that they were advertising. It seems that in this hyped up race to reach the 1Ghz mark, Intel has forgotten good business practices. If they were not able to produce 800Mhz chips in any quantities, what makes them think that they will be able to manufacture 1Ghz chips. The supply problems will continue and they will further alienate their customers.
The second problem in this boneheaded move is that now AMD will be forced to release their 1Ghz chips. AMD however will be able to manufacture them in much larger quantities then Intel. The net result will be that if you want to be the first one with a 1Ghz PC on your block you will most likely end up going for an AMD chip simply because the 1Ghz vapor Pentium chip will not be available for sale anywhere.
As a side note, think long the 800Mhz Pentium has been out and then tell me where I can buy one.
What Amazon is doing simply can't be good for their bottom line. Clearly they will loose more customers over things like this they they will ever hope to gain. I used to shop there and will not do so anymore, and I suspect a lot of other people will do the same. In a situation where the compatition is only as far as pointing your browser at a new URL Amazon should be very carfull about their image with customers. The obvious question then is if this won't help their business then what is the point?
...there is now way that this will hold up in court. However keeping in mind the recent court rulings on anything that has to do with technology I'm sure some clueless judge would hold this up. I'm just wondering how long it will take for this unbelievably arrogant company to sue somebody. I've stopped shopping at amazon after they sued Barnes&Noble over the one click shopping feature and I'm urging everyone here to do the same. As little as we think we may be able to do about it as individuals, all you have to do is look at the recent etoys incident to see what large public uproar can do and how quickly it can turn their minds. The patent system was set up so that individuals and companies would be able to protect themselves and their investments. It seems that these days it has turned into an offensive tactic, means to an end. The end here being some sort of a basis for a lawsuit. After all if there is no reason to sue somebody you can always invent one.
The reason that the gui's on linux look don't look as professional as those created by the likes of Apple and of course MS is because those companies employ a large number of graphics artists and the sort who are good at making things look good. Then they put these things in front of people and ask them what they think. This has not been done in the gui's available for linux. While they may be technically sound, after all there is no lack of good programmers working on them, they are not as good looking because these programmers are good at writing code and not designing GUIs. I think there should be some sort of a public feedback system designed to help those working on these projects to make the GUIs look better. Of course people wouldn't always agree, but overall I think it would help. Getting some graphics artists involved in these projects would be of great help too.
Things have definitely improved from a few years ago but we can still do better.
The prices haven't gone up that much. Besides is eBay some kind of a secret that nobody knows about. Maybe a few years ago but not anymore.
You can find a bunch of these at ebay. it seems that you'll end up paying a little over $300. Not a bad deal if you ask me.
Here's the link on Ebay
"Librarians decide what to spend public money on. Publishers decide what is worthy of publishing. Bookstores decide what materials they will carry. Newspapers decide which books will be reviewed. In the print medium, restrictions exist. They should exist in some form in the electronic world, too."
These restrictions exist because it would simply be impractical to have every book ever printed in the library or print a review of all books published in the newspapers. In the electronic world comparisons like this are simply irrelevant and there is absolutely no logistical reason why I should not be able to access any site on the internet I want to. In fact it takes no effort to carry all sites on the internet as opposed to having to install filtering software in order to put those restrictions into effect. How come you never hear about problems like this in Europe. Is it because all the fanatical fundamentalist Christians have moved to the US. People in Europe are much more open about things like this and despite proclaiming to have the worlds largest democracy, here in America we are still afraid that a child might be exposed to a nipple on a tv or computer screen. The horror. He would be scarred for life. It seems hypocrisy has no limits here.
I got this quote from an article at news.com and I quote "LoriJo Schepers, a spokeswoman for Holland Area Citizens Voting YES! To Protect Our Children, said last night that the defeat won't end her up's fight to get filters installed on the library computers."
First of all what makes these people think that they have a right to impose their ignorant ideas on the rest of us when clearly they have been defeated by a reasonably democratic process. Give it up. The people have spoken and it looks like they're against it. But no, we have to protect the children. Why is it that everytime they try to limit our rights it's in the name of protecting the children. I'm all for "protecting the children" but stop using them as some sort of a rallying cause. After all what politician would say "against" when asked if he is for or against protecting the children. These people preach morality when they have absolutely none and they are yhe only thing we should protect our children from.
I would maintain that in fact it was because the USSR became sloppy and the KGB grew weak that Eastern Europe was mainly allowed to leave.
I don't think you know what you are talking about here.
I will admit that in fact people getting neadlessly killed must have been quite a thril (you usually can't interview dead people because they are well dead but the dieing give us a clue and they don't usualyl like it one bit).
Would you tell the family of a soldier who died in WWII that he needlessly died, that didn't have to go to fight. Well, if that soldier didn't go to fight then today Europe would be half Nazi and half communist.
Frankly I would think that most intelligent people would realize that it is better to fight another day.
This is why we still have Communism in Eastern Europe, right. Oh , I forgot we don't because a few brave individuals decided that the freedom of an entire nation was worth more than one life. I lived in Eastern Europe during the 80's so don't tell me what really happened. The comments you have made are possibly some of the most ignorant I have ever read here on slashdot and for that matter anywhere. Countless millions have died so we can live in the security we live in today and say something like that. I have no words for what I think of you. "If we don't take action now we'll settle for nothing later" RATM
The simple fact here is that companies like Time Warner are not afraid of the relatively few individuals who are going to make illegal copies of their work. What they are afraid of is that they won't be able to control the distribution of their material. Digitalization of everything from books to movies has made it possible for these companies to control not only when something will be released but also where and for how long. They are able to distribute US versions of DVD's which will not play in Europe for example and they are able to set restrictions on the use of the material that they distribute. If cracking the technology that enables these measures was not restricted then the whole scheme would not work. After all why sell a book once when you can sell it five times to the same person.
If this isn't stopped now, we'll all end up paying for it. Of course I don't have much hope that anything we say now will have any effect. It looks like our fate has been sealed.
There would be no antitrust case because MS doesn't have a monopoly in the console business. They are entering a new and unrelated industry and just because they have a stockpile of cash doesn't mean they are a monopoly. Besides there is plenty of competition in the industry right now so an antitrust case would not fly.
If they stepped aside when a cop with a warrant said "move, I'm searching your stuff on behalf of your boss" then we've got bigger problems
It's sad to say but I don't remember a court ruling any time recently that was in favor of an individual and not some corporation. As opposed to some states , the federal judges are not elected so it's not like they're getting campaign contributions from these companies. I guess we've been reduced to the true definition of a work force. "What you're not working!!!" "Put him in jail and seize all his property!!" I'm expecting that this will happen soon.
The big bad company won't arrest you. The will make sure laws get passed on the basis of which the police will arest you. So in qthe end it's the same thing. Don't be so naive.
I read the article and maybe I'm missing something but it made no mention of any firsdt or last place overall standings. Why use these attention grabbing headlines when they have absolutely nothing to do with the story? Or maybe you guys are talking about some other story. Any way, as far as the article itself, it wasn't to technical but it did show that if you have a staff of incompetent netwotk admins. then your only bet would be to set up a Win 2000 server. If you ask me this is not a very good reason for choosing your NOS. I'll agree that setting up a UNIX box might at first be more complicated but it's the performance and reliability that counts when you're running a server.
Thank you for writing to Amazon.com.
The patent system is designed to encourage innovation, and we spent
thousands of hours developing our 1-Click® shopping feature. This
feature securely stores billing and shipping information so that
returning customers need only click their mouse once, without
re-entering or re-confirming that information, to purchase selected
items conveniently.
In recognition of the innovative and unique nature of the 1-Click®
technology, the U.S. Patent Office awarded Patent No. 5,960,411 to
Amazon.com on September 28, 1999.
We're pleased that the court recognized the innovation underlying our
1-Click® feature by granting a preliminary injunction barring
barnesandnoble.com from using it while our suit is pending.
I hope you'll understand that we are unable to discuss this case any
further as we are currently in litigation. Thank you for taking the
time to share your views with us.
This is what Amazon's reply was to my e-mail
Better watch out. Judging by the debate on the WTO about a week or so ago There seems to be a lot of WTO support on slashdot.
I've been following this whole Australian censorship thing here on slashdot and from other news sources and I'm concerned to say the least. I do not know very much about Australian law, but the question is how did it get to this? It's certainly not something I would expect from a country like Australia. Here in the US we've been enjoying our relative freedom on the internet with few government regulations but if this can happen in Australia, who knows what they can pull over us . Most people only hear on the news about internet porn, tie ins to columbine, and bomb recepies, and in the name of protecting the children they will agree to anything. There have been some boneheaded rulings by the US courts as well as some sane ones so it's hard to say where this is going.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance"
It's not about financial success. financial success of these companies benefits all of us. I't about the fact that they are not responsible in how they use their power. I have nothing against anybody making as much money as they possibly can but you can't do it by any means necessary. In this case the end does not justify the means.
I don't get this. When news like this comes out everybody is all of a sudden angry at those "evil" corporations that try to make their own laws and do whatever they want to, yet when the story about the WTO protests came out people where asking where all the anger was coming from.
Why the change of opinion. Is it because people are just to short-sighted and forget things like this , which have been happening on a regular basis.
I agree to most of what he has to say. I lived in an Eastern European country before the communism fell and in those days everyone knew who the enemy was. there was no doubt about what had to be done in order to change the situation, and everyone from the kids to the elderly had these same ideas. You didn't believe your government and the media because yopu knew what was behind them. Today in the US and similarly in Europe people are protesting and most have no idea why those people are protesting. the "enemy" isn't very clear cut but it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. The enemy that was taking away my rights before has now mutated and who do I point a finger at? Let's not expect any major change here, unfortunately, becayse as long as greed is what drives most people the corporations will reflect that because after all they are us. It makes me laugh when I hear christmas carols being played through the speakers in every department store and mall this time of year with posters plastered all over advertising all the great holliday deals.
"Crawl with me into tomorrow
Or I'll drag you to your grave
I'm deep inside your children
They'll betray you in my name"
I'm really disappointed to see these responses on slashdot. I was under the impression that slashdot readers were more intelligent than the average joe. Instead they seem to be reciting word for word what has been being spoonfed by the mass media.
"Just victims of the in-house drive-by they say jump, you say how high"