Claiming that the utter explosion in music piracy over the past few years has absolutely no effect on CD sales is a phenomenon that I call "ignoring the elephant" -- that is, the two-ton elephant in the room wearing a shirt labelled "music piracy."
I think this is much more basic a problem than you describe. This is a business problem and there are a number of severe problems with their business model. To mix my metaphors, I don't think you are seeing the trees for the forest on this issue, although I don't deny there is an elephant in the forest.
On the band side of the equation you have failed to factor the destruction of the local and regional labels, radio stations and music scenes. In the quest to make everything 'product', they have turned as much to focus groups and product testing as they have to talent. It is very difficult for a band to rise up these days and even harder to stay intact. Bands, for the most part do not make money off of the music now, they make it by touring and selling t-shirts. There is a massive disincentive for bands to even try. Those bands that are really good, often stick to their local scene and never go national because the pressure is too much and they don't want to ruin their lives in what will be a soul sucking adventure that will most likely lead to breakup and ruin instead of profit.
Independant distribution is a thing of the past for the most part. The venues that were the life blood of many labels, especially radio, have dried up. Homogenization is virtually absolute. I recently saw a TV add for a radio station advertising that they weren't Clearchannel, how pathetic is that, not being Clearchannel is considered a marketable asset. So not only is there no product, there is no way to deliver a variety people might care to sample.
On the listener side, a few top executives 'decide' what we want to hear. They select groups based on mass appeal, engineer a 'product' and push it as much as they can. People don't like being told what to listen to, they like what they like and are often in another world from the recording industry. There is a basic disconnect. I don't listen to commercial radio any more, there isn't any point, they don't have anything I want to hear. It is boring to hear the same play list over and over again. I don't buy CD's for the most part, and I don't miss them at all. If I want music, I can get roughly 200gigs from my friends if I want it, but for the most part I don't care. I used to buy music. Not any more. There are a lot of people like me.
So on the development, distribution and listener channels of delivery there is an impediment to using recording industry products. A smart company would tailor products to my interests and break through delivery roadblocks with good products and marketing tailored to user needs instead of threatening people. Basically, the message is 'The record industry doesn't have good products, they can't move their worthless crap and people won't buy the crap if they could move it... and also they SUCK ASS.' The record industry is in decline, this isn't rocket science, it is how the market works, they have no product, they have no way to move the product and they have an increasingly uninterested pool of people to sell to.
...but you are an idiot. Disclosing code in court will not assign copyrights to the public domain. The owner of the copyright still owns those copyrights. These rights cannot arbitrarily be reassigned. Also secrets aren't secret if everyone knows them. Unix has been widely published on a massive scale, what could possibly be secret in Unix V, and besides, the real secrets to Unix are in its processes, specifications and patents which SCO doesn't own for the most part, and are also widely known or even public domain and aren't even slightly secretive. The particular code is just the implementation of the spec. which is copyrighted but isn't a 'secret' if everyone knows how it is made. Secrets are like Kentucky Fried Chicken, ring laser gyros and Coca Cola, once you tell everyone how to make it, it isn't a secret any more, and anyone will know how to make it.
What kind of dumbass would tell me to sit back and relax while someone tries to violate my rights. That is bullshit. I don't trust IBM to watch out for my interests, they would just as soon fuck me up the ass as help me out, and I would like to do my own due dilligence, very much thank you, because I do not like to get buggered.
There is a little thing called EXTORTION. The criminal process goes like this:
Step 1. Criminal claims to be a friendly salesman
Step 2. Forces businesses to buy 'insurance' from being attacked by the salesman.
Step 3. FBI/courts slaps on RICO restrictions
Step 4. Court and Conviction
Step 5. Prison
When you think about it, what is SCO really selling? They are selling 'insurance', the kind where you give them money and maybe they don't attack you.
This is hearteneing because SCO is in a CONTRACT dispute with IBM. They do not have a copyright over IBM's work. This is siginificant because the only remedy they have is to go after IBM, they have no right to sue Linux users for a contract violation because the Linux users are an independant third party not bound to SCO as IBM is. And even if SCO found some obscure part of their contract with IBM which allowed them to claim copyright to IBM's work, they cannot assign a license other than the GPL for existing work. They can claim damages, but they must first mitigate the situation, which they have expressly avoided, and systematiclally refused to do. This has been re-hashed many times, but the legal distinction and allowable remedies between contract and copyright law reinforces an already obviously logical proposition, that SCO cannot charge Linux users anything and even in the most optimistic scenario, SCO still does not have a leg to stand on.
The contract/license difference acts like a firewall between the SCO/IBM 'contract' dispute and the GPL license. Certain ports are simply blocked and the only way SCO could get in was if we used a Windows firewall analogy.
The following is a scene from a new DVD I am planning on calling 'The SCO Files', starring Ron Jeremy...and Jenna Jameson. It shows exactly what the RBC is thinking. If you steal my idea I will sue you! This is good copyrighted shit!
RBC:What the f*** do you mean SCO is f***ed. Oh my god, I need a f***ing drink. GET ME A DRINK...NOW!
Analyst:Uhhh...We did some more research and found the whole SCO case full of holes. They can't even figure out what to accuse IBM of stealing. The computer code we were shown was a fabrication. We were tricked. We assumed SCO was using some flim flam, but thought they had at least something to extort the Linux community with. But as it turns out, devout Mormons can't tell a decent lie.
RBC: We gave them 50 f***ing million dollars! We have to get out of this, or the board is going to crucify me. Bob, what can we do?
Bob:Let me turn to my manual on pure evil...lets see. Page 52, Getting out of a Contract Through Slime, Sabatoge and Compromising Photographs. Yes...here it is. Lets sabatoge the Boise team, they must know by now they won't get paid anyway, they didn't even bother to show up at the last court appearance. A little kick and they will gladly leave. We can screw up their payment deal, thus nullifying their contract with SCO. It will appear in the press like SCO is another Enron if their attorney bails out. And that will be enough for us to stop payment on our $50 million check. And we can claim fraud if they demand payment. Once we pull out we contact our good golfing buddy, the Attorney General of Delaware. He still owes you $50 from that last round of golf...and oh yes, how you got him elected.
RBC: Excellent.EXCELLENT
Bob: One more thing...guards, take this analyst away, permanently.
Analyist: Nooo..NOOOOOOO...NOOOOOOOOOOOO
Bob: OK. Now all we need is a hooker to photograph with Darl McBride. Bring in the first applicant. [enter Jenna Jameson]
If RBC wanted to hedge against massive exposure to pro Linux businesses, they wouldn't support a company that actively undermines those businesses. The appropriate course of action would be to crush SCO using dirty tricks, backroom deals and political power. The hedge would properly be implemented through some kind of option to buy SCO stock at a certain price from someone.
There is an exception which could get let SCO worm its way past the GPL. If IBM is found to have taken SCO owned material (remotely possible), and included it in Linux where SCO did not know that this material was included in Linux (doubtful in the extreme) and SCO took adequate remedial measures (laughable effort so far) then they could claim some kind of damages as long as they were not shipping Linux in any form (highly unconvincing effort). If Linux users continued to use the infringing code (extremely unlikely) then SCO could charge them. So if you add it up
(remotely possible + doubtful in the extreme + laughable effort so far+ highly unconvincing effort + extremely unlikely)
you are left with the amount of risk Linux users face based on the law. I am thinking SCO has about the same odds as being struck by an asteroid *based on the law*. However, they were last represented in court by Darl McBride's brother and, US senator for Utah, Orinn Hatches son, Brent Hatch of Hatch James and Dodge... the fix could be in...hmmmmmmmmmm.
That is perhaps the stupidest thing I have ever heard of. Of course you 'own' the rights to your own work. It is the same idea that allows you to own the 'rights' to property of any kind, including real estate. Ownership of real estate is embodied in a title which describes your property and its history and is registered with a legal authority, ownership of copyright is automatically given to the author because they originated the work and the author can entitle others to use it as if it were an asset such as real estate. If you didn't own the right to a work, copyright would be useless as a commercial or personal asset, just like property would be useless without a title, anyone could claim ownership.
I am an architect. When I make a drawing I hold the copyright to the work. That is the only way I can enforce my legal right to be paid by a client. The client purchases the right to build a design based on my copyrighted drawings, but they have no rights to use my copyrighted work without my permission, they do not own the drawings, they own the built design. If the client decides not to pay me...sorry, they can't use any of my drawings legally, and if they do, I can sue them. This happens all the time.
Copyright allows me to enforce my rights with contractors. The contractor can deviate from the design, but since I am the creator, only I have the legal authority to interpret what it is. Take away my copyright, and the design belongs just as much to the contractor as the architect, he can change it as he sees fit, something contractors always try to do (usually to skim money out of the project). Copyright is the only thing I have to ensure these rights. Take that away and the whole building industry will go staight into merciless developers pockets who can steal ideas at will and can claim full ownership of a design that I made, and I would get no credit for my work.
Copyright is legal ownership of an idea or artistic work in principle. Copyright describes how and under what conditions you can own something like that. The only reason it needs to fall back into the public domain is that works gradually get absorbed into a culture, and when that happens, they form a basis for public discourse. You cannot have free speech or pursue daily activities when someone owns a chunk of your lexicon. That is why rights should expire. My ideas do not belong to society however, if they did, everything I am and will be would not be my own, that is ludicrous. That kind of ownership is in the worst traditions of totalinarianism and slavery. Go live in North Korea if you want that kind of copyright law. If you try to enforce that crap on me I am thankful for another right, THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS.
WALMART CUSTOMER: Aint java whats them city folk drink in ther fancee coffee joints. Well I gots to get a JAVA computer. Its a heifer and two pigs cheaper than an Apple. I don't want that Micro-soft cause I herd bout identity theft on the 10:00 news, where the Russians bust in and steals yer numbers. I want my mo-chine to be REAL fancy though. I can buy a full inter-net computer for $299 at WAL-MART with a printer and TV screen and typewriter disk and I get 1000 free Owls(AOL). God bless America...Cheyanne, WHERES MY TV DINNER! Wheel of Fortune is on!
(fade to a small polyester flag which flaps in the breeze, a screen door slams shut next to a coon dog, on a redwood deck, connected to a trailer as a camaro being worked on in the yard revs its engine, coughs and belches black smoke.)
This to illustrate the point, its half about brand recognition to people who know very little and care even less and many will use the computer only for printing digital pictures, email and porn. It is not about usability (Microsoft anyone?), not about performance (microsoft again). The main problem will be a lack of computer games and tax software, but if it takes off, that will change soon. The real question is, will you want the white trash of America using Linux or Windows?
It wasn't an accident that the transistor was invented at Bell Labs. The power drop off and unreliability of vacuum tubes meant an alternative was needed for long distance transmission. Phone use was skyrocketing back in the 1920's, 30's and 40's and the idea of coast to coast clear calls was the new dream. Ma Bell had the resources to put together a team to deal with this problem. They found the solution in 1947 and dubbed it the transistor. The technology spread around and was licensed to little startup companies such as Sony and the basis for the modern computer era was set. Companies like HP soon started to take advantage of the technology and push it forward. The rest is history.
The really big ideas need a culture of support, as the internet did from the military and scientific community, where at opportune moments, great minds come together by the necessity of invention. I think Linux and the GPL is the next big thing. It has all kinds of really smart people working on it, it is supported by many top notch companies and has real economic incentives. It is an awesome way of leveraging technology and aggregating all the far flung contributions from the whole world making it the first modern operating system to be developed on a distributed basis (the power of distributed computing should be obvious to anyone by now). Who knows where this will take us.
I like the idea of steganography as a modern, yet classic example of a dramatic puzzle, where the question 'is' the answer and this circular logic keeps secrecy. This isn't a code in the military tradition, it is a mysterious personal code. That is why I think it is special.
I don't understand why you bring up the Newspeak though. If the new order is as insidious as you say it is, then what is the point of abiding such tyranny, grab your glock and and bust a cap in the man like the original gangsta Patrick Henry advocated...
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
...but I guess you don't REALLY believe that newspeak is taking over, or you wouldn't be posting such nonsense in an open forum because you wouldn't have the language to truly dissent. Therefore this begs the question, are you truly aware of what newspeak is? Perhaps the paralytic impulse you describe is of your own making and YOU are the implement of Newspeak because you lack the language to describe your intellectual prison. After all, that is the nature of newspeak, people imprison themselves because they lack the language and readily accept the anhilation of meaning. Dis-belief and social conventions perpetuate this intellectual vacuum. You yourself spout off and tacitly accept your own Newspeak.
Most criminals are not BAD GUYS, but instead, good loving parents, patriots, and friends to society. It no longer makes sense to equate criminal to BAD.
If you truly wanted to fight Newspeak you would fight the branding of honest people as criminals or 'bad guys' and create a clear distinction between good/bad. Ultimately, I don't buy that newspeak schmoo. That is just an excuse for weak minded people for not standing up for what they believe in.
The only dogma I hold is that dogma must be challenged, especially my own.
This is like in the movies, where to find the secret code you need the exact page of a specific book and then pull out 10 words from page 12, paragraph 3, words 3,19,12 and 42...etc. The book is hidden somewhere in the library of congress, know the title of the book and the code is revealed. I guess cryptography has come full circle, whats next, anograms with carrier pidgeons? I guess the old tricks are still the best tricks.
But wouldn't it be ironic if IBM cleaned SCO out and in order to pay IBM off, SCO had to give them Unix Sys V, and then IBM began to charge fees to end users?
You can't plead the 5th in a civil case. This is a contract case, so SCO could have some ammo to use in that department, and they may need copies of AIX to find out what is going on. But every version of AIX ever is a bit ridiculous. How about the versions of AIX which are 'pre-linux'? If I was IBM, I would print this all on double spaced note cards without a table of contents or numbered pages with a tiny cursive font and anti-photocopy protection and send it over to SCO, all 10,000,000,000 pages. IBM has more money and can afford to digitize all of the pages. SCO on the other hand would be swamped.
Slashdot Mirror
All current and former emplyees of SCO are terrorists and should be sent to Gitmo for questioning and...'interrogation'.
The technology to erase memory has been around for thousands of years, it is called alchohol.
Every hero needs a villain!
The job has been filled
Novell owns the copyright, not SCO, you would have to buy Novell and open source it.
Claiming that the utter explosion in music piracy over the past few years has absolutely no effect on CD sales is a phenomenon that I call "ignoring the elephant" -- that is, the two-ton elephant in the room wearing a shirt labelled "music piracy."
I think this is much more basic a problem than you describe. This is a business problem and there are a number of severe problems with their business model. To mix my metaphors, I don't think you are seeing the trees for the forest on this issue, although I don't deny there is an elephant in the forest.
On the band side of the equation you have failed to factor the destruction of the local and regional labels, radio stations and music scenes. In the quest to make everything 'product', they have turned as much to focus groups and product testing as they have to talent. It is very difficult for a band to rise up these days and even harder to stay intact. Bands, for the most part do not make money off of the music now, they make it by touring and selling t-shirts. There is a massive disincentive for bands to even try. Those bands that are really good, often stick to their local scene and never go national because the pressure is too much and they don't want to ruin their lives in what will be a soul sucking adventure that will most likely lead to breakup and ruin instead of profit.
Independant distribution is a thing of the past for the most part. The venues that were the life blood of many labels, especially radio, have dried up. Homogenization is virtually absolute. I recently saw a TV add for a radio station advertising that they weren't Clearchannel, how pathetic is that, not being Clearchannel is considered a marketable asset. So not only is there no product, there is no way to deliver a variety people might care to sample.
On the listener side, a few top executives 'decide' what we want to hear. They select groups based on mass appeal, engineer a 'product' and push it as much as they can. People don't like being told what to listen to, they like what they like and are often in another world from the recording industry. There is a basic disconnect. I don't listen to commercial radio any more, there isn't any point, they don't have anything I want to hear. It is boring to hear the same play list over and over again. I don't buy CD's for the most part, and I don't miss them at all. If I want music, I can get roughly 200gigs from my friends if I want it, but for the most part I don't care. I used to buy music. Not any more. There are a lot of people like me.
So on the development, distribution and listener channels of delivery there is an impediment to using recording industry products. A smart company would tailor products to my interests and break through delivery roadblocks with good products and marketing tailored to user needs instead of threatening people. Basically, the message is 'The record industry doesn't have good products, they can't move their worthless crap and people won't buy the crap if they could move it... and also they SUCK ASS.' The record industry is in decline, this isn't rocket science, it is how the market works, they have no product, they have no way to move the product and they have an increasingly uninterested pool of people to sell to.
...but you are an idiot. Disclosing code in court will not assign copyrights to the public domain. The owner of the copyright still owns those copyrights. These rights cannot arbitrarily be reassigned. Also secrets aren't secret if everyone knows them. Unix has been widely published on a massive scale, what could possibly be secret in Unix V, and besides, the real secrets to Unix are in its processes, specifications and patents which SCO doesn't own for the most part, and are also widely known or even public domain and aren't even slightly secretive. The particular code is just the implementation of the spec. which is copyrighted but isn't a 'secret' if everyone knows how it is made. Secrets are like Kentucky Fried Chicken, ring laser gyros and Coca Cola, once you tell everyone how to make it, it isn't a secret any more, and anyone will know how to make it.
What kind of dumbass would tell me to sit back and relax while someone tries to violate my rights. That is bullshit. I don't trust IBM to watch out for my interests, they would just as soon fuck me up the ass as help me out, and I would like to do my own due dilligence, very much thank you, because I do not like to get buggered.
Squeel like a pig? Hell no!
There is a little thing called EXTORTION. The criminal process goes like this:
Step 1. Criminal claims to be a friendly salesman
Step 2. Forces businesses to buy 'insurance' from being attacked by the salesman.
Step 3. FBI/courts slaps on RICO restrictions
Step 4. Court and Conviction
Step 5. Prison
When you think about it, what is SCO really selling? They are selling 'insurance', the kind where you give them money and maybe they don't attack you.
This is hearteneing because SCO is in a CONTRACT dispute with IBM. They do not have a copyright over IBM's work. This is siginificant because the only remedy they have is to go after IBM, they have no right to sue Linux users for a contract violation because the Linux users are an independant third party not bound to SCO as IBM is. And even if SCO found some obscure part of their contract with IBM which allowed them to claim copyright to IBM's work, they cannot assign a license other than the GPL for existing work. They can claim damages, but they must first mitigate the situation, which they have expressly avoided, and systematiclally refused to do. This has been re-hashed many times, but the legal distinction and allowable remedies between contract and copyright law reinforces an already obviously logical proposition, that SCO cannot charge Linux users anything and even in the most optimistic scenario, SCO still does not have a leg to stand on.
The contract/license difference acts like a firewall between the SCO/IBM 'contract' dispute and the GPL license. Certain ports are simply blocked and the only way SCO could get in was if we used a Windows firewall analogy.
Silly rabbit, FUD is for Trolls.
Just so long as the road rash doesn't scrape off a tatoo. That almost happened to my brother.
5. They are migrating from Linux to Microsoft and as a result all of their shit is broken.
The following is a scene from a new DVD I am planning on calling 'The SCO Files', starring Ron Jeremy...and Jenna Jameson. It shows exactly what the RBC is thinking. If you steal my idea I will sue you! This is good copyrighted shit!
RBC:What the f*** do you mean SCO is f***ed. Oh my god, I need a f***ing drink. GET ME A DRINK...NOW!
Analyst:Uhhh...We did some more research and found the whole SCO case full of holes. They can't even figure out what to accuse IBM of stealing. The computer code we were shown was a fabrication. We were tricked. We assumed SCO was using some flim flam, but thought they had at least something to extort the Linux community with. But as it turns out, devout Mormons can't tell a decent lie.
RBC: We gave them 50 f***ing million dollars! We have to get out of this, or the board is going to crucify me. Bob, what can we do?
Bob:Let me turn to my manual on pure evil...lets see. Page 52, Getting out of a Contract Through Slime, Sabatoge and Compromising Photographs. Yes...here it is. Lets sabatoge the Boise team, they must know by now they won't get paid anyway, they didn't even bother to show up at the last court appearance. A little kick and they will gladly leave. We can screw up their payment deal, thus nullifying their contract with SCO. It will appear in the press like SCO is another Enron if their attorney bails out. And that will be enough for us to stop payment on our $50 million check. And we can claim fraud if they demand payment. Once we pull out we contact our good golfing buddy, the Attorney General of Delaware. He still owes you $50 from that last round of golf...and oh yes, how you got him elected.
RBC: Excellent.EXCELLENT
Bob: One more thing...guards, take this analyst away, permanently.
Analyist: Nooo..NOOOOOOO...NOOOOOOOOOOOO
Bob: OK. Now all we need is a hooker to photograph with Darl McBride. Bring in the first applicant. [enter Jenna Jameson]
If RBC wanted to hedge against massive exposure to pro Linux businesses, they wouldn't support a company that actively undermines those businesses. The appropriate course of action would be to crush SCO using dirty tricks, backroom deals and political power. The hedge would properly be implemented through some kind of option to buy SCO stock at a certain price from someone.
You idiot, it was Carl...he is always screwing stuff up.
Microsoft should take up quilting...they have plenty of patch fabric.
There is an exception which could get let SCO worm its way past the GPL. If IBM is found to have taken SCO owned material (remotely possible), and included it in Linux where SCO did not know that this material was included in Linux (doubtful in the extreme) and SCO took adequate remedial measures (laughable effort so far) then they could claim some kind of damages as long as they were not shipping Linux in any form (highly unconvincing effort). If Linux users continued to use the infringing code (extremely unlikely) then SCO could charge them. So if you add it up
(remotely possible + doubtful in the extreme + laughable effort so far+ highly unconvincing effort + extremely unlikely)
you are left with the amount of risk Linux users face based on the law. I am thinking SCO has about the same odds as being struck by an asteroid *based on the law*. However, they were last represented in court by Darl McBride's brother and, US senator for Utah, Orinn Hatches son, Brent Hatch of Hatch James and Dodge... the fix could be in...hmmmmmmmmmm.
You DO NOT own the work you hold copyright on
That is perhaps the stupidest thing I have ever heard of. Of course you 'own' the rights to your own work. It is the same idea that allows you to own the 'rights' to property of any kind, including real estate. Ownership of real estate is embodied in a title which describes your property and its history and is registered with a legal authority, ownership of copyright is automatically given to the author because they originated the work and the author can entitle others to use it as if it were an asset such as real estate. If you didn't own the right to a work, copyright would be useless as a commercial or personal asset, just like property would be useless without a title, anyone could claim ownership.
I am an architect. When I make a drawing I hold the copyright to the work. That is the only way I can enforce my legal right to be paid by a client. The client purchases the right to build a design based on my copyrighted drawings, but they have no rights to use my copyrighted work without my permission, they do not own the drawings, they own the built design. If the client decides not to pay me...sorry, they can't use any of my drawings legally, and if they do, I can sue them. This happens all the time.
Copyright allows me to enforce my rights with contractors. The contractor can deviate from the design, but since I am the creator, only I have the legal authority to interpret what it is. Take away my copyright, and the design belongs just as much to the contractor as the architect, he can change it as he sees fit, something contractors always try to do (usually to skim money out of the project). Copyright is the only thing I have to ensure these rights. Take that away and the whole building industry will go staight into merciless developers pockets who can steal ideas at will and can claim full ownership of a design that I made, and I would get no credit for my work.
Copyright is legal ownership of an idea or artistic work in principle. Copyright describes how and under what conditions you can own something like that. The only reason it needs to fall back into the public domain is that works gradually get absorbed into a culture, and when that happens, they form a basis for public discourse. You cannot have free speech or pursue daily activities when someone owns a chunk of your lexicon. That is why rights should expire. My ideas do not belong to society however, if they did, everything I am and will be would not be my own, that is ludicrous. That kind of ownership is in the worst traditions of totalinarianism and slavery. Go live in North Korea if you want that kind of copyright law. If you try to enforce that crap on me I am thankful for another right, THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS.
$500 billion in sales? I don't think so.
WALMART CUSTOMER: Aint java whats them city folk drink in ther fancee coffee joints. Well I gots to get a JAVA computer. Its a heifer and two pigs cheaper than an Apple. I don't want that Micro-soft cause I herd bout identity theft on the 10:00 news, where the Russians bust in and steals yer numbers. I want my mo-chine to be REAL fancy though. I can buy a full inter-net computer for $299 at WAL-MART with a printer and TV screen and typewriter disk and I get 1000 free Owls(AOL). God bless America...Cheyanne, WHERES MY TV DINNER! Wheel of Fortune is on!
(fade to a small polyester flag which flaps in the breeze, a screen door slams shut next to a coon dog, on a redwood deck, connected to a trailer as a camaro being worked on in the yard revs its engine, coughs and belches black smoke.)
This to illustrate the point, its half about brand recognition to people who know very little and care even less and many will use the computer only for printing digital pictures, email and porn. It is not about usability (Microsoft anyone?), not about performance (microsoft again). The main problem will be a lack of computer games and tax software, but if it takes off, that will change soon. The real question is, will you want the white trash of America using Linux or Windows?
It wasn't an accident that the transistor was invented at Bell Labs. The power drop off and unreliability of vacuum tubes meant an alternative was needed for long distance transmission. Phone use was skyrocketing back in the 1920's, 30's and 40's and the idea of coast to coast clear calls was the new dream. Ma Bell had the resources to put together a team to deal with this problem. They found the solution in 1947 and dubbed it the transistor. The technology spread around and was licensed to little startup companies such as Sony and the basis for the modern computer era was set. Companies like HP soon started to take advantage of the technology and push it forward. The rest is history.
The really big ideas need a culture of support, as the internet did from the military and scientific community, where at opportune moments, great minds come together by the necessity of invention. I think Linux and the GPL is the next big thing. It has all kinds of really smart people working on it, it is supported by many top notch companies and has real economic incentives. It is an awesome way of leveraging technology and aggregating all the far flung contributions from the whole world making it the first modern operating system to be developed on a distributed basis (the power of distributed computing should be obvious to anyone by now). Who knows where this will take us.
I like the idea of steganography as a modern, yet classic example of a dramatic puzzle, where the question 'is' the answer and this circular logic keeps secrecy. This isn't a code in the military tradition, it is a mysterious personal code. That is why I think it is special.
...but I guess you don't REALLY believe that newspeak is taking over, or you wouldn't be posting such nonsense in an open forum because you wouldn't have the language to truly dissent. Therefore this begs the question, are you truly aware of what newspeak is? Perhaps the paralytic impulse you describe is of your own making and YOU are the implement of Newspeak because you lack the language to describe your intellectual prison. After all, that is the nature of newspeak, people imprison themselves because they lack the language and readily accept the anhilation of meaning. Dis-belief and social conventions perpetuate this intellectual vacuum. You yourself spout off and tacitly accept your own Newspeak.
I don't understand why you bring up the Newspeak though. If the new order is as insidious as you say it is, then what is the point of abiding such tyranny, grab your glock and and bust a cap in the man like the original gangsta Patrick Henry advocated...
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Most criminals are not BAD GUYS, but instead, good loving parents, patriots, and friends to society. It no longer makes sense to equate criminal to BAD.
If you truly wanted to fight Newspeak you would fight the branding of honest people as criminals or 'bad guys' and create a clear distinction between good/bad. Ultimately, I don't buy that newspeak schmoo. That is just an excuse for weak minded people for not standing up for what they believe in.
The only dogma I hold is that dogma must be challenged, especially my own.
This is like in the movies, where to find the secret code you need the exact page of a specific book and then pull out 10 words from page 12, paragraph 3, words 3,19,12 and 42...etc. The book is hidden somewhere in the library of congress, know the title of the book and the code is revealed. I guess cryptography has come full circle, whats next, anograms with carrier pidgeons? I guess the old tricks are still the best tricks.
But wouldn't it be ironic if IBM cleaned SCO out and in order to pay IBM off, SCO had to give them Unix Sys V, and then IBM began to charge fees to end users?
You can't plead the 5th in a civil case. This is a contract case, so SCO could have some ammo to use in that department, and they may need copies of AIX to find out what is going on. But every version of AIX ever is a bit ridiculous. How about the versions of AIX which are 'pre-linux'? If I was IBM, I would print this all on double spaced note cards without a table of contents or numbered pages with a tiny cursive font and anti-photocopy protection and send it over to SCO, all 10,000,000,000 pages. IBM has more money and can afford to digitize all of the pages. SCO on the other hand would be swamped.