In the case of a software patent , the offending algorithm would be fully disclosed in the patent application, out in the open for all to see. It would be published on the first date that the patent holder has the right to prevent unauthorized use.
With this full transparency, legions of open source coders could write around the protected algorithm. Although important code might be sacrificed, no legal problem would remain.
Much more distressing is the possibility that a company like SCO finds a judge who agrees to view code that is the foundation for a legal claim "in chambers", and finds IBM or another firm using Linux guilty of violating some "copyrighted" or "trade secret" not a matter of public record.
That's the big danger of the SCO case -- the prospect that the code that is the foundation for the legal claim never sees the light of day.
Months ago, my father -- a teacher -- received a OSX laptop from his school district, which had bundled OS9 Office, but nothing else, really. I borrowed it for a week and, finding OS 9 "emulation" ridiculous, played around with the included OSX natives software.
Excuse me, what bundled software? This was pre-Safari, so even the web browser sucked. It has to have the least included software ever. Not even a decent text editor, bare bones word processor, or M$ Works clone! By comparison, IBM's OS/2 came fully featured.
Running X applications seemed tedious, alongside a native Linux system, and took no advantage of OSX's distinctive user interface (which, frankly, seems stultifying).
So, without buying hundreds of dollars of "professional" M$ software, or just turning the Mac into an X computer, I find it not very compelling.
I'm quite sure that, during Congressional hearings on music downloading "back in the day" with Napster and the RIAA testifying, Senator Hatch raised the possibility that Congress might legislate a mandatory licensing scheme music -- enabling Napster and others to offer music online on commercially reasonable terms -- if the recording industry tried to obstruct online distribution of music.
I don't know why we keep seeing refs to articles from the nation's leading periodicals, like the NYT, showing up on "./" one or two days after the fact. This article, case in point, was posted to the NYT Saturday at Midnight, Eastern time. It's now about 36 hours later. This practice seems to be accelerating.
Increasing voter participation among online users will increase the proportion whose views you see in the average online polls. Conservative, right -- at least as regards economic and foreign policy viewpoints.
China's Chernobyl
Tuesday, April 22, 2003; Page A18
SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO this month, Swedish scientists first noticed disturbingly high levels of radiation on their monitoring screens -- the first signs of the Chernobyl disaster. But although Western scientists quickly pinpointed the source of the radiation in the Soviet Union, the Soviet leadership was slow to respond. For 18 days Mikhail Gorbachev, who had just taken power, said nothing. When he finally spoke, he accused Western media of sensationalism but also seemed genuinely affected by the suffering and illness. Within months, Chernobyl had helped persuade him to launch glasnost, a policy of greater honesty in Soviet public debate.
Watching China react to SARS, the mysterious new respiratory disease, it is impossible not to be reminded of Chernobyl. . .
It is far too early to say whether the SARS fiasco will lead to a new era of glasnost in China. . .
In other words, there are more cracks in China's totalitarian armor than the Chinese and even some Americans are prepared to admit. The damage caused by secrecy in the SARS case shows why it is right to continue pressing China in every way possible to become more open.
Updating a search engine of general web material is an important objective, but there are diminishing marginal returns to immediacy. Google News is an example of a subset of web material -- news sites -- for which immediacy is a more important goal. It's no surprise that Google offers a very fast refresh there. A distributed system that would do that for the entire net is interesting, but not necessarily worthwhile.
This isn't like the AIDS epidemic, which has had governments all over the world making terrible missteps, in a slowly unfolding saga of policy horrors with no strong correlation to political system.
China *may* prove to be significantly at fault here, in failing to acknowledge and contain the epidemic in its very earliest hours, in strict contrast to the rest of the civilized world.
This is potentially much more significant than Chernobyl in relation to body count. Very few deaths can be connected to Russia's coverup of Chernobyl. While Chernobyl is widely considered as a critical turning point in the last days of the USSR, Russia's denials led mainly to delayed administration of Iodine to prevent Thyroid Cancer in Ukraine, the Baltics, Poland and Skandinavia -- not a massive body count.
It is more a question of striking intense fear in the populace.
Does anyone want to deny Asia is in a panic over SARS?
Depending on its spread, far more people could conceivably die from SARS (even given its posited low death rate) in one year than AIDS, even twenty years into the AIDS epidemic.
SARS is the Chernobyl of the Chinese government.
Chernobyl taught the Russian people, and the world, the unprecedented dangers of a closed society in a highly technological era.
Another aspect of the modern era is globalization and international mobility. Again, we see that a closed society is no longer tenable.
SARS' underreporting and denials by the Chinese authorities, like Chernobyl, will bring severe, lasting political consequences for the regime, and may be an impetus that finally takes toward replacing the totalitarian political system.
Premise 1: Microsoft possesses significant market power.
Premise 2: Exploiting that power to maximize profits could, taken to extremes, do significant damage to the overall economy's prospects for growth, and to efficient distribution of income.
Premise 3: The government in power will take no action under the antitrust laws, given considerations of political expediency or ideology.
Issue: Given these premises, does Microsoft have any ethical obligations to constituencies other than its shareholders?
Slashdot Mirror
With this full transparency, legions of open source coders could write around the protected algorithm. Although important code might be sacrificed, no legal problem would remain.
Much more distressing is the possibility that a company like SCO finds a judge who agrees to view code that is the foundation for a legal claim "in chambers", and finds IBM or another firm using Linux guilty of violating some "copyrighted" or "trade secret" not a matter of public record.
That's the big danger of the SCO case -- the prospect that the code that is the foundation for the legal claim never sees the light of day.
And ... time to bring back those comparisons to George Jetson's collapsible car.
Excuse me, what bundled software? This was pre-Safari, so even the web browser sucked. It has to have the least included software ever. Not even a decent text editor, bare bones word processor, or M$ Works clone! By comparison, IBM's OS/2 came fully featured.
Running X applications seemed tedious, alongside a native Linux system, and took no advantage of OSX's distinctive user interface (which, frankly, seems stultifying).
So, without buying hundreds of dollars of "professional" M$ software, or just turning the Mac into an X computer, I find it not very compelling.
Has Hatch changed sides so dramatically?
I don't know why we keep seeing refs to articles from the nation's leading periodicals, like the NYT, showing up on "./" one or two days after the fact. This article, case in point, was posted to the NYT Saturday at Midnight, Eastern time. It's now about 36 hours later. This practice seems to be accelerating.
The iMac and the iPod are products introduced more than a year ago. He's the designer of what, then, last year?
Ximian may get kudos for boosting Linux on the desktop.
But they raise questions about Linux server, when their home page is unreachable on high-volume launch day!
Increasing voter participation among online users will increase the proportion whose views you see in the average online polls. Conservative, right -- at least as regards economic and foreign policy viewpoints.
China's Chernobyl
Tuesday, April 22, 2003; Page A18
SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO this month, Swedish scientists first noticed disturbingly high levels of radiation on their monitoring screens -- the first signs of the Chernobyl disaster. But although Western scientists quickly pinpointed the source of the radiation in the Soviet Union, the Soviet leadership was slow to respond. For 18 days Mikhail Gorbachev, who had just taken power, said nothing. When he finally spoke, he accused Western media of sensationalism but also seemed genuinely affected by the suffering and illness. Within months, Chernobyl had helped persuade him to launch glasnost, a policy of greater honesty in Soviet public debate.
Watching China react to SARS, the mysterious new respiratory disease, it is impossible not to be reminded of Chernobyl. . .
It is far too early to say whether the SARS fiasco will lead to a new era of glasnost in China. . .
In other words, there are more cracks in China's totalitarian armor than the Chinese and even some Americans are prepared to admit. The damage caused by secrecy in the SARS case shows why it is right to continue pressing China in every way possible to become more open.
Updating a search engine of general web material is an important objective, but there are diminishing marginal returns to immediacy. Google News is an example of a subset of web material -- news sites -- for which immediacy is a more important goal. It's no surprise that Google offers a very fast refresh there. A distributed system that would do that for the entire net is interesting, but not necessarily worthwhile.
Time Magazine Asia Edition
This isn't like the AIDS epidemic, which has had governments all over the world making terrible missteps, in a slowly unfolding saga of policy horrors with no strong correlation to political system.
China *may* prove to be significantly at fault here, in failing to acknowledge and contain the epidemic in its very earliest hours, in strict contrast to the rest of the civilized world.
This is potentially much more significant than Chernobyl in relation to body count. Very few deaths can be connected to Russia's coverup of Chernobyl. While Chernobyl is widely considered as a critical turning point in the last days of the USSR, Russia's denials led mainly to delayed administration of Iodine to prevent Thyroid Cancer in Ukraine, the Baltics, Poland and Skandinavia -- not a massive body count.
It is more a question of striking intense fear in the populace.
Does anyone want to deny Asia is in a panic over SARS?
Depending on its spread, far more people could conceivably die from SARS (even given its posited low death rate) in one year than AIDS, even twenty years into the AIDS epidemic.
SARS is the Chernobyl of the Chinese government. Chernobyl taught the Russian people, and the world, the unprecedented dangers of a closed society in a highly technological era. Another aspect of the modern era is globalization and international mobility. Again, we see that a closed society is no longer tenable. SARS' underreporting and denials by the Chinese authorities, like Chernobyl, will bring severe, lasting political consequences for the regime, and may be an impetus that finally takes toward replacing the totalitarian political system.
Premise 2: Exploiting that power to maximize profits could, taken to extremes, do significant damage to the overall economy's prospects for growth, and to efficient distribution of income.
Premise 3: The government in power will take no action under the antitrust laws, given considerations of political expediency or ideology.
Issue: Given these premises, does Microsoft have any ethical obligations to constituencies other than its shareholders?