The point here is that our elected representatives in Europe *have* voted against software patents, unanimously at the last count, yet the idea of passing the directive still isn't dead.
It's not just some council members changing their mind, though that has happened. Between the council agreeing this, and now, 10 new members joined the EU, and many of them, including Poland, are against the directive. We also had elections in June, and anti software patent candidates did well in those elections.
This sort of claim assumes that the software co has a target total revenue and divides this amoungst the number of units it expects to sell.
In reality, they aim to make as much money as possible, and charge the amount that gives them the maximum revenue.
Increasing prices means that people are more likely to look at the competition, which includes emule / bittorrent downloads. If that competition isn't there, they can raise prices, and it won't affect the number of units they sell too much.
The $565m is just to cover past infringements. MS would still need to pay a licence fee if they wanted to use the patent in future, and Eolas could set that at pretty much whatever level they want.
What is it that tells a particular CPU to do graphics work rather than some other sort of work? It certainly isn't hardware. It is some sort of software. Maybe the operating system, or a device driver, or some firmware stored on a rom chip on the motherboard.
If you were under the impression that not restarting the process meant that the directive was never passed, you would misinterpret the situation, and your thoughts would not conflict with what the article says.
I have an SD card which is about 1/2" sq and stores 1GB. 2GB cards are available but fairly expensive at the moment. Or, you could look at Compact Flash cards which are about 1" sq, and you see 8GB cards available to those who can afford them.
The jump from there to 128GB which is what this article is promising isn't really too radical.
In the UK, the petrol stations (we call it petrol, not gas) have digital cameras watching all the cars when they fill up. They take a pic of the number plate, and use OCR to get the registration number.
Once that is done, the pump is switched on, and you can fill up.
In some places, they check it to a database of stolen cars etc, and you don't get any petrol if you are on the list.
The windows installer isn't for grandparents either, and it is generally more difficult to use than linux installers.
I don't know about Slackware, and Debian's is more difficult, but certainly Mandrake, Red Hat, Suse etc are easier to install.
Second, the success of Mozilla Firefox shows what we can do in terms of name recognition when we have the right product, and the right market conditions.
The Docklands Light Railway in London is completely computer controlled - no drivers in sight, and it is the second most reliable railway in the country.
The most reliable is the Isle of Wight Line which is so small and simple that nothing could possibly go wrong.
A big difference between linux and hurd is that Linus set out to hack something together that would work, based on tried and tested technologies - (ie a monolithic kernel).
The hurd developers on the other hand set out to create something that is better than anything that has ever been developed before.
When you consider that, it is not hard understand why linux is one of the more popular mainstream kernels out there, whereas hurd still isn't ready for serious use.
The european commission was "reinstalled" after the last euro elections.
The anti software patent cantidates did pretty well in the elections, and that, along with the 10 new countries joining the EU, meant that the Commission no longer had a majority in favour of software patents.
They tried to push it in through the back door, by having it as an A list item (no debate) in meetings totally unrelated to software and technology, such as the agriculture and fisheries meetings. This failed because the commissioners for various countries, mainly Poland, noticed this, and objected to it.
That is why the directive failed to go through.
It may surprise you, but software patents are a really big issue in the EU. MEPs have received more letters from their constituents about software patents than about any other subject.
Copyright is supposed to encourage the publication of new works and ideas, by giving them a limited time protection before they enter the public domain.
I believe if we follow this to its logical conclusion, software should only get copyright protection if the source code is published.
This obviously wouldn't be "open source" as we know it, but it would still be an improvement.
Slashdot Mirror
The point here is that our elected representatives in Europe *have* voted against software patents, unanimously at the last count, yet the idea of passing the directive still isn't dead.
It's not just some council members changing their mind, though that has happened. Between the council agreeing this, and now, 10 new members joined the EU, and many of them, including Poland, are against the directive. We also had elections in June, and anti software patent candidates did well in those elections.
Doesn't work like that.
This sort of claim assumes that the software co has a target total revenue and divides this amoungst the number of units it expects to sell.
In reality, they aim to make as much money as possible, and charge the amount that gives them the maximum revenue.
Increasing prices means that people are more likely to look at the competition, which includes emule / bittorrent downloads. If that competition isn't there, they can raise prices, and it won't affect the number of units they sell too much.
California wasn't chosen because in the event that he did have to land early, he could land in California rather than the Pacific Ocean.
Mostly in the registry, but otherwise c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc
The $565m is just to cover past infringements. MS would still need to pay a licence fee if they wanted to use the patent in future, and Eolas could set that at pretty much whatever level they want.
That IMO would be a software patent.
What is it that tells a particular CPU to do graphics work rather than some other sort of work? It certainly isn't hardware. It is some sort of software. Maybe the operating system, or a device driver, or some firmware stored on a rom chip on the motherboard.
If you were under the impression that not restarting the process meant that the directive was never passed, you would misinterpret the situation, and your thoughts would not conflict with what the article says.
I grabbed the phone ring sound from KDE and put that on my phone as my ring tone. My phone takes .wav files as ring tones, your's may not be so lucky.
I have an SD card which is about 1/2" sq and stores 1GB. 2GB cards are available but fairly expensive at the moment. Or, you could look at Compact Flash cards which are about 1" sq, and you see 8GB cards available to those who can afford them.
The jump from there to 128GB which is what this article is promising isn't really too radical.
I don't agree.
The attributes of a free market include:
Anyone is free to enter or leave the market
No one person, or group of people, is big enough to control the market price
In the UK, it is basically BT, NTL and Telewest, but broadband is available in 95% of households, and about 21% have an account.
Can you install a linux rootkit by viewing a web page in Mozilla / Konqueror?
You could look at the EU's own website for a start - http://europa.eu.int/abc/index3_en.htm
In the UK, the petrol stations (we call it petrol, not gas) have digital cameras watching all the cars when they fill up. They take a pic of the number plate, and use OCR to get the registration number.
Once that is done, the pump is switched on, and you can fill up.
In some places, they check it to a database of stolen cars etc, and you don't get any petrol if you are on the list.
Firefox is now big enough that I see banks specifically say they support it.
In particular, the Royal Bank of Scotland / Natwest, who used to actively block any connections from Firefox.
Two things
The windows installer isn't for grandparents either, and it is generally more difficult to use than linux installers.
I don't know about Slackware, and Debian's is more difficult, but certainly Mandrake, Red Hat, Suse etc are easier to install.
Second, the success of Mozilla Firefox shows what we can do in terms of name recognition when we have the right product, and the right market conditions.
The Docklands Light Railway in London is completely computer controlled - no drivers in sight, and it is the second most reliable railway in the country.
The most reliable is the Isle of Wight Line which is so small and simple that nothing could possibly go wrong.
Didn't some of the Mosaic developers leave NCSA to start Netscape?
Some warez sites have them. One I saw was supposed to help you search for porn. I don't know if it does or not.
It will appear in the yellow bar at the top of the screen, and you would have to explicitly ask to install it.
The 5.25" floppy was a pervasive consumer device.
Try finding anything that can read them today.
You can.
Farmers do it all the time, and until Monsanto came along, it was perfectly legal.
A big difference between linux and hurd is that Linus set out to hack something together that would work, based on tried and tested technologies - (ie a monolithic kernel).
The hurd developers on the other hand set out to create something that is better than anything that has ever been developed before.
When you consider that, it is not hard understand why linux is one of the more popular mainstream kernels out there, whereas hurd still isn't ready for serious use.
The european commission was "reinstalled" after the last euro elections.
The anti software patent cantidates did pretty well in the elections, and that, along with the 10 new countries joining the EU, meant that the Commission no longer had a majority in favour of software patents.
They tried to push it in through the back door, by having it as an A list item (no debate) in meetings totally unrelated to software and technology, such as the agriculture and fisheries meetings. This failed because the commissioners for various countries, mainly Poland, noticed this, and objected to it.
That is why the directive failed to go through.
It may surprise you, but software patents are a really big issue in the EU. MEPs have received more letters from their constituents about software patents than about any other subject.
Copyright is supposed to encourage the publication of new works and ideas, by giving them a limited time protection before they enter the public domain.
I believe if we follow this to its logical conclusion, software should only get copyright protection if the source code is published.
This obviously wouldn't be "open source" as we know it, but it would still be an improvement.