If writing viruses can land you jail time (witness the fate of the author of Melissa) then the scum that distributed this code ought to be criminally prosecuted as well.
Its despicable enough to install files onto a user's machine without their consent but to turn off the protection they're relying on is disgusting.
Artistic works are never property. The rights granted by law to artists may be sold or transferred. The artistic work is owned by the public from it's inception.
The last sentence of your statement is patently absurd. The first two sentences of your statement are contradictory.
A property is something that can be bought, sold, traded, transferred; that's why we, civilization, created the cash economy. A "work of art" is fundamentally no different that anything else created by any individual. The chair a woodworker crafts in his workshop is no different than a book created by an artist (that one is infinitely reproducable at economies of scale is immaterial). Would you lay the same claim that the chair too belongs to the public? If so, I hope you have a DVD player in your possesion because I sure would like one and would love to exercise my public-ownership claim to it (as a work of art created by the Sony Corp.).
But it doesn't work that way. The "public" - you and I - intrinsically own nothing, and have no claim to lay to anything, that isn't provided to us by the item's creator, no matter how easy it is for you to take it without cost. To do so otherwise is simply called stealing.
Slashdot Mirror
Its despicable enough to install files onto a user's machine without their consent but to turn off the protection they're relying on is disgusting.
Burn the bastards.
Artistic works are never property. The rights granted by law to artists may be sold or transferred. The artistic work is owned by the public from it's inception.
The last sentence of your statement is patently absurd. The first two sentences of your statement are contradictory.
A property is something that can be bought, sold, traded, transferred; that's why we, civilization, created the cash economy. A "work of art" is fundamentally no different that anything else created by any individual. The chair a woodworker crafts in his workshop is no different than a book created by an artist (that one is infinitely reproducable at economies of scale is immaterial). Would you lay the same claim that the chair too belongs to the public? If so, I hope you have a DVD player in your possesion because I sure would like one and would love to exercise my public-ownership claim to it (as a work of art created by the Sony Corp.).
But it doesn't work that way. The "public" - you and I - intrinsically own nothing, and have no claim to lay to anything, that isn't provided to us by the item's creator, no matter how easy it is for you to take it without cost. To do so otherwise is simply called stealing.
No no no, a whole planet devoted to hockey! (joy!)
Actually, we will be posting the source online as well at www.opencola.org once it's all good to go.
No purchase necessary. Really.
Cheers,
Chris Cummer
Señor Programmer
Steelbridge, Inc.