Recall the sole "mystery licensee" that they reported
having signed
up in early August. I would have expected
that to appear on this 10-Q. But this 10-Q only goes up to the end of July.
Either (a) they were signed up between Aug 1 and Aug 11 or (b) they didn't pay that much;).
There was a recent paper in CHI 2003 on an email client with embedded task management. The idea is to provide support for those of us who use our email
as a "to do" list. They implemented this idea and
did a user study, and found that "Some users continued to use the tool in preference to Outlook, long after the evaluation study was ended" [Ian Smith]. See
Taking email to task: the design and evaluation of a task management centered email tool, Victoria Bellotti, Nicolas Ducheneaut , Mark Howard, Ian Smith, CHI 2003, pp 345 - 352
Here's a (hopefully) legal and tractable alternative Cringely's idea:
Libraries can legally lend a CD because there's only a single physical
copy. The big problem is that you've got to pick up and return the
physical copy.
So why not use DRM to our advantage, and have our libraries
electronically lend the CD (or a single track), and use DRM to ensure
there's only one electronic copy out at a time. Add a "Just In Time"
inventory model where you only borrow the song immediately before
playing it, and you return it immediately afterward. Then each track
is potentially played a large number of times, back to back,
throughout the day, by different users.
We'd make a request to a server that
finds a library with an available copy, and maybe queue up if none is
free right now.
Of course, you've got to be online when you listen to the song for
this to work, and you've got to get a lot of libraries (or entities
with a similar legal status that would permit
them to distribute a single copy of a work) involved.
An alternative it to set up such an entity which
buys lots of copies of each CD, and simultaneously
distributes as many single, one-time copies
as it has a right to. Perhaps the users pay a
tiny amount to fund the CD purchases.
Slashdot Mirror
Meaning that patentability is necessary for innovation to occur.
Not sure many of us agree about that :)
Either (a) they were signed up between Aug 1 and Aug 11 or (b) they didn't pay that much ;).
If you have SSL certificates from Thawte (a subsidiary of Verisign), you can send them a message today.
Email your Thawte rep to explain why you or, better yet, your huge organization :) won't be renewing your certificates with Thawte.
You can tell them "it's a trust thing" (their own motto).
Here's a (hopefully) legal and tractable alternative Cringely's idea:
Libraries can legally lend a CD because there's only a single physical copy. The big problem is that you've got to pick up and return the physical copy.
So why not use DRM to our advantage, and have our libraries electronically lend the CD (or a single track), and use DRM to ensure there's only one electronic copy out at a time. Add a "Just In Time" inventory model where you only borrow the song immediately before playing it, and you return it immediately afterward. Then each track is potentially played a large number of times, back to back, throughout the day, by different users. We'd make a request to a server that finds a library with an available copy, and maybe queue up if none is free right now.
Of course, you've got to be online when you listen to the song for this to work, and you've got to get a lot of libraries (or entities with a similar legal status that would permit them to distribute a single copy of a work) involved.
An alternative it to set up such an entity which buys lots of copies of each CD, and simultaneously distributes as many single, one-time copies as it has a right to. Perhaps the users pay a tiny amount to fund the CD purchases.