You're talking about a fantasy situation. Of course there will always be ways to limit access to source code. It's called distributing software in binary form only. It happens all the time.
If copyright law disappeared, it would not suddenly become impossible.
It would be far more honest, then, if the FSF would just come out and say they're trying to abolish the copyright laws (which I doubt they are, or they would say so openly). It would be just plain dishonest to lay out a thin coating of protection, get people to contribute to the effort, and then yank away that protection.
Oh, and the above two sentences: The GPL is only needed as long as copyrights exist. If there were no copyrights, there would be no need for GPL, since by definition all sources would be open. should be printed in fancy gold lettering at the bottom of any correspondence from people who believe it to be the true aim of Open Source. So they can be avoided like the plague by creative people who value their work.
I'd suggest that you go away, but we know not even who you are, as you've chosen to be an anonymous coward.
Try to be more thoughtful in your responses. I didn't celebrate the end of copyright law, I just suggested that everything the GPL protects would be in great peril if copyright laws ceased to exist.
That isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, what being a "Microsoft Toadie" is.
My creator isn't dog (or god, or however you wish to spell it). But you're entitled to your interpretation of the past.
Your attitude about what it means to be an American citizen belongs in a theocracy like Iran. Go there now, and fight some infidels. We don't need a bunch of priests shaking their rattles around the place here in the United States.
You can stay if you promise to be nice. But if you insist on engaging in public acts with your holy whore, we will have to ask you to leave.
Christianity is based on sadomasochistic ritual and imagery anyhow. The wasted young body of Christ on the cross. Think about it next time you see one of those most pogniant crucifixes. It gets the Nuns all bothered, to be certain.
Catch and release guarantees that every fish gets an opportunity to be dragged head-first out of the water at high speed at least several times in it's life.
Sportsmen are very important to the conservation movement.
That's why statistics are paraded around about things like: How many more white-tailed-deer there are in northen Minnesota now than there were before the 'Sportsmen' made sure they were managed. Of course, this sort of misses the point that there were NO white-tailed deer in Northern Minnesota (there were Caribou, now there are no Caribou).
Sportsmen generally celebrate and support the existence of rat-like species that hover around man, and which happen to be good sport to kill and eat. The common rabbits and White-tailed deer are examples of said rat-like species.
Ah yes, the death of the GPL (and all other forms of copyright.)
Now that is going to convince working programmers to contribute to open source.
Hint- if the copyright laws were abolished, the GPL would be invalid along with all other protection schemes.
All the GNU utilities would be available, but the 'G' at the front of the names could be excised. Company X, Y, and Z could introduce new improved versions that gave them the lead, because there wouldn't be any copyright law to enforce.
Sounds dandy. We all start eating fruits and nuts we gather off trees, too, eh?
The development of language and vocabularly is a process of consensus.
Words carry the meaning that the people who use them intend.
To say otherwise implies that when you call yourself a 'geek' that you meant that for fun on the weekends you sit in a cage pretending you are crazy, biting the heads off live chickens.
So, so, few of the people who call themselves "hackers" now were even alive 30 years ago to claim they have any rights to a hacker's heritage. I was a nine-year old kid at that time, but spent much time hacking apart old TV sets, radios and stuff to figure out what the parts were and how it worked, but I surely don't claim I was a 'hacker.' In any of the senses in common usage now (which are all by definition valid usages).
The US government continued its attempt to prop up troubled satellite-based cellphone company Iridium, yesterday. The Department of State signed a $1.4 million cheque for 1000 Motorola-made Iridium handsets.
The US government is rather keen on Iridium -- it bought another huge pile of phones back in June. It has its own gateway into the network, and according to the release issued about yesterday's purchase, "other US government agencies" plan to make use of it.
Actually, I read (on www.theregister.com) a few weeks ago how the US Government had BAILED OUT the Iridium Network by purchasing a large number of accounts. It was reported that this was being done to keep the network solvent. This leads me to believe that the US Government didn't just approve of Iridium, they wanted to give it any help they could to keep it alive.
People who predict the demise of the Internet seem to miss one thing I think. If the Internet dies, what is going to replace it?
AOL, MSN, Prodigy, CompuServe. All sorts of private hookup options people can subscribe to. All which connect to one another for various publicly accessable data resources.
It could happen that way, or it could happen as a result of the end of small ISPs (due to the privatisation of the 'net and the end of massive public subsidies of bandwidth which allow "the little guy" to use resources no small operator could afford alone). If there are only five "on-ramps" (i.e. the above mentioned "Online Service Providers") then the net as people see it today is dead.
Massive public subsidy of the infrastructure is already a dying thing. It's inevitably so, as we live in conservative privatising times. Why should I as a citizen of Minnesota pay for every college kid to download MP3s over ethernet in his/her dorm room?
I don't particularly like business, I really don't like marketing and I really really don't like crap like trade shows, or having to get sales reps together, or any of that.
If you're "about to have a serious look at RH6 & Metroworks" you should be warned that the "trade show types" are crawling all over it right now.
The keyboard interface is a syncronous serial interface, and not necessarily well-buffered. Hot plugging a keyboard is a good way to toast out a motherboard's keyboard interface.
It was ages ago, but I remember buying 8088 motherboards back in 'the old days' at swapmeets. A common 'defect' on them (component level troubleshooting is such fun) was the TTL gates with lines connected directly to the keyboard being blown. These days that logic is all buried in a monster "Chipset" part. If you blow the keyboard interface on such a board, plan on telnetting to that box in the future, you won't be typing at it anymore.
Why do people think this means that "Windows wins?" The LinuxPPC Contest was launched as a response to the NT 2000 site being put online, but I don't recall Microsoft or anybody at all, actually, setting it up as a formal challange.
It seemed to me more of a "me-too" effort on the part of the LinuxPPC site. Does anybody know of any way at all that Microsoft even acknowledged there was a 'contest' taking place?
The "really bad stuff" that the law enforcers are going to pay attention to are the crimes that are already being enforced in other venues.
The Pornography Industry (who still represent a staggering percentage of the online 'revenue stream') can easily be reigned in through domestic action. If it goes offshore, just make it impossible for revenues to be collected from American customers. If it isn't 'for-profit' stuff, it's probably covered under 'free speech' law anyway. I've so seldom caught sight of a 'non-profit' pornography industry, that I won't be surprised if one never emerges.
There's this thing called a "temporary autonomous zone". I.e.: that party where everybody cut loose and activities that would be questionable in the light of day become acceptable. It's the camping trip away from buildings and roads and police squad cars where casual illicit substance use just happens. It's any time people gather and no force of authority intrudes.
Here's a clue for you all: It's temporary. It never lasts, because Fester the molester always somehow manages to figure out where the party is and people stop having fun because of the tricks he plays.
Mr. Clinton heads the Executive Branch, just as it is written in the constitution. His responsiblities include issuing executive orders. No law has been created by this executive order. You should have done your homework when you took civics.
What are you gonna do with that paunchy meatsack you're festering in, if you go to live in the "Internet State?" We certainly don't want you leaving it behind.
Slashdot Mirror
You're talking about a fantasy situation. Of course there will always be ways to limit access to source code. It's called distributing software in binary form only. It happens all the time.
If copyright law disappeared, it would not suddenly become impossible.
It would be far more honest, then, if the FSF would just come out and say they're trying to abolish the copyright laws (which I doubt they are, or they would say so openly). It would be just plain dishonest to lay out a thin coating of protection, get people to contribute to the effort, and then yank away that protection.
Oh, and the above two sentences: The GPL is only needed as long as copyrights exist. If there were no copyrights, there would be no need for GPL, since by definition all sources would be open. should be printed in fancy gold lettering at the bottom of any correspondence from people who believe it to be the true aim of Open Source. So they can be avoided like the plague by creative people who value their work.
I'd suggest that you go away, but we know not even who you are, as you've chosen to be an anonymous coward.
Try to be more thoughtful in your responses. I didn't celebrate the end of copyright law, I just suggested that everything the GPL protects would be in great peril if copyright laws ceased to exist.
That isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, what being a "Microsoft Toadie" is.
Kids these days....
My creator isn't dog (or god, or however you wish to spell it). But you're entitled to your interpretation of the past.
Your attitude about what it means to be an American citizen belongs in a theocracy like Iran. Go there now, and fight some infidels. We don't need a bunch of priests shaking their rattles around the place here in the United States.
You can stay if you promise to be nice. But if you insist on engaging in public acts with your holy whore, we will have to ask you to leave.
Christianity is based on sadomasochistic ritual and imagery anyhow. The wasted young body of Christ on the cross. Think about it next time you see one of those most pogniant crucifixes. It gets the Nuns all bothered, to be certain.
Catch and release guarantees that every fish gets an opportunity to be dragged head-first out of the water at high speed at least several times in it's life.
It's more humane that way.
Sportsmen are very important to the conservation movement.
That's why statistics are paraded around about things like: How many more white-tailed-deer there are in northen Minnesota now than there were before the 'Sportsmen' made sure they were managed. Of course, this sort of misses the point that there were NO white-tailed deer in Northern Minnesota (there were Caribou, now there are no Caribou).
Sportsmen generally celebrate and support the existence of rat-like species that hover around man, and which happen to be good sport to kill and eat. The common rabbits and White-tailed deer are examples of said rat-like species.
Cool. I was wondering what the names of the Penguins were. We know one would have to be Tux.
So one was called TLC too? Was that the one that always wolfed down the fish? Greedy little thing.
But now we know why it needed so much energy.
You want instant heat? That cast iron wedge, the splitting maul, that stump, and that pile of oak logs is your answer!
Haha.
Ah yes, the death of the GPL (and all other forms of copyright.)
Now that is going to convince working programmers to contribute to open source.
Hint- if the copyright laws were abolished, the GPL would be invalid along with all other protection schemes.
All the GNU utilities would be available, but the 'G' at the front of the names could be excised. Company X, Y, and Z could introduce new improved versions that gave them the lead, because there wouldn't be any copyright law to enforce.
Sounds dandy. We all start eating fruits and nuts we gather off trees, too, eh?
The development of language and vocabularly is a process of consensus.
Words carry the meaning that the people who use them intend.
To say otherwise implies that when you call yourself a 'geek' that you meant that for fun on the weekends you sit in a cage pretending you are crazy, biting the heads off live chickens.
So, so, few of the people who call themselves "hackers" now were even alive 30 years ago to claim they have any rights to a hacker's heritage. I was a nine-year old kid at that time, but spent much time hacking apart old TV sets, radios and stuff to figure out what the parts were and how it worked, but I surely don't claim I was a 'hacker.' In any of the senses in common usage now (which are all by definition valid usages).
I *knew* this would immediately degenerate into a Libertarian discussion.
The problem was where you said in your message that "you think."
You don't think. You react.
The government sunk a sizeable amount of money into keeping the Iridium network alive.
Your ignorant post has prompted me to go look up the URL on theregister.com (hardly a lapdog of the US government).
US government Props Up Iridium
posted 20/7/99 4:22 pm
excerpt:
The US government continued its attempt to prop up troubled satellite-based cellphone company Iridium, yesterday. The Department of State signed a $1.4 million cheque for 1000 Motorola-made Iridium handsets.
The US government is rather keen on Iridium -- it bought another huge pile of phones back in June. It has its own gateway into the network, and according to the release issued about yesterday's purchase, "other US government agencies" plan to make use of it.
Actually, I read (on www.theregister.com) a few weeks ago how the US Government had BAILED OUT the Iridium Network by purchasing a large number of accounts. It was reported that this was being done to keep the network solvent. This leads me to believe that the US Government didn't just approve of Iridium, they wanted to give it any help they could to keep it alive.
People who predict the demise of the Internet seem to miss one thing I think. If the Internet dies, what is going to replace it?
AOL, MSN, Prodigy, CompuServe. All sorts of private hookup options people can subscribe to. All which connect to one another for various publicly accessable data resources.
It could happen that way, or it could happen as a result of the end of small ISPs (due to the privatisation of the 'net and the end of massive public subsidies of bandwidth which allow "the little guy" to use resources no small operator could afford alone). If there are only five "on-ramps" (i.e. the above mentioned "Online Service Providers") then the net as people see it today is dead.
Massive public subsidy of the infrastructure is already a dying thing. It's inevitably so, as we live in conservative privatising times. Why should I as a citizen of Minnesota pay for every college kid to download MP3s over ethernet in his/her dorm room?
Two could argue it...
oh, whatever.
Carry on.
Aw, they probably tried to bite Linus during his speech.
Whereas I see posts being made by Anonymous Coward all over the place, so clearly you've been contributing your part.
I don't particularly like business, I really don't like marketing and I really really don't like crap like trade shows, or having to get sales reps together, or any of that.
If you're "about to have a serious look at RH6 & Metroworks" you should be warned that the "trade show types" are crawling all over it right now.
Hot swapping keyboards is in general a bad idea.
The keyboard interface is a syncronous serial interface, and not necessarily well-buffered. Hot plugging a keyboard is a good way to toast out a motherboard's keyboard interface.
It was ages ago, but I remember buying 8088 motherboards back in 'the old days' at swapmeets. A common 'defect' on them (component level troubleshooting is such fun) was the TTL gates with lines connected directly to the keyboard being blown. These days that logic is all buried in a monster "Chipset" part. If you blow the keyboard interface on such a board, plan on telnetting to that box in the future, you won't be typing at it anymore.
Why do people think this means that "Windows wins?" The LinuxPPC Contest was launched as a response to the NT 2000 site being put online, but I don't recall Microsoft or anybody at all, actually, setting it up as a formal challange.
It seemed to me more of a "me-too" effort on the part of the LinuxPPC site. Does anybody know of any way at all that Microsoft even acknowledged there was a 'contest' taking place?
One could argue that the Internet matured in 1992, that it started dying in 1996, and that organs are failiure is now setting in.
That's because Linux sells books, Linux sells magazine articles, and Linux sells convention tickets.
I second this sentiment.
The "really bad stuff" that the law enforcers are going to pay attention to are the crimes that are already being enforced in other venues.
The Pornography Industry (who still represent a staggering percentage of the online 'revenue stream') can easily be reigned in through domestic action. If it goes offshore, just make it impossible for revenues to be collected from American customers. If it isn't 'for-profit' stuff, it's probably covered under 'free speech' law anyway. I've so seldom caught sight of a 'non-profit' pornography industry, that I won't be surprised if one never emerges.
There's this thing called a "temporary autonomous zone". I.e.: that party where everybody cut loose and activities that would be questionable in the light of day become acceptable. It's the camping trip away from buildings and roads and police squad cars where casual illicit substance use just happens. It's any time people gather and no force of authority intrudes.
Here's a clue for you all: It's temporary. It never lasts, because Fester the molester always somehow manages to figure out where the party is and people stop having fun because of the tricks he plays.
Deal with it.
Mr. Clinton heads the Executive Branch, just as it is written in the constitution. His responsiblities include issuing executive orders. No law has been created by this executive order. You should have done your homework when you took civics.
What are you gonna do with that paunchy meatsack you're festering in, if you go to live in the "Internet State?" We certainly don't want you leaving it behind.