.... that you ARE a hosting customer and you have a Linux box.
Torvalds notices a bug in the kernal (like the local root exploit recently) and releases a patch, or you want to apply some configuration option to the kernel to give it booster rockets, or maybe you want to give 2.6 a try.
Its my understanding (and I'm sure there are many people here who can confirm or deny this on my behalf) that these things are done by COMPILING a new KERNEL. Thats means making changes to the Source code via patches, scripts and what-not and CHANGING the Object Code to which the licence applies.
It's been noted in this thread that EV1 used to help people with this kind of thing, are they able to carry on providing this assistance? or do they have to deny all knowledge and remind you that you are "infringing SCOs copyrights" when you do this?
I should think they do, since they have acknowledged that they believe SCO has copyrights, that the material is in Linux and they have a signed a contract restricting their rights and in turn YOUR RIGHTS under the GPL.
Remember these are dedicated boxen and people will want to do a bit more with them than normal web hosting and will require superior performance and security.
Compare this situation with a host that continues to refute SCOs claims and seeks to wait until the allegations are proven. What sway have SCO to say that can or cannot apply that Kernal update? None, and in truth they will always have no sway in this becaue its all FUD!
SJG
IANAL the above is educated speculation - you decide if I speak well or ill. My opinion is just that.
I haven't reviewed the links this time around but last time I did, and quickly discovered that windows has a large market share due to widespread piracy.
I guess this will change when Microsoft begin an enforcement effort. As many people have mentioned, Iraqi's have better things to spend money on than feeding US monopolies.
I saw a BBC TV piece about the Iraqi police force. The guys on the ground are yute driving, gun weilding Iraqis, but behind the scenes there was this Armerican officer acting as what we'd call a Custody sergeant. Keeping track of prisoners, charges, and related data on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The screen of his laptop was shown in close up.
There seemed to be some process (a manual one I guess) whereby the list was updated and circulated MONTHLY. Meanwhile parents were enquiring after missing children (something they did under Saddam for different reasons) and their children couldn't be found in the spreadsheet because it either hadn't been updated or was inaccurate.
A particularly interesting scene was where the BBC journalist had to explain to the Iraqi father that the US soldiers weren't very good at spelling Iraqi names so made sure that the man wrote down the name on the spreadsheet - kind of like an involuntary alter-ego born from the seed of a yank's typo. The man then had to go to another prison and search for his son using a variety of differently spelt names.
Apparently no-one had thought of circulating a dictionary of common names, or using SOUNDEX for that matter.
Well I think there is a difference between ineffective and easily overcome. It may only take 5 minutes to come up with all the posible keys, but you are still making that effort to circumvent a form of encryption.
What bugs me is the whole region code thing, thankfully, that is neither encryption or copyprotection. It is merely a (direct) attack on the rights of the consumer to use the product, with no affect on copying. Thus this Act shouldn't affect multi-region DVDs AFAIK. IANAL.
To turn the problem around, has anyone any news that would indicate the illegality of region zone restrictions?
Well, actually I care about privacy, but thats not why I am posting. I see both power-users and eventually all users getting mightily annoyed by the fact that their web browser can now no-longer determine whether a typo has occured or not, and control the response.
Of course there are many options. Power users for example might prefer a short neat error message, either in-page or pop-up. Newbies might prefer a search service. What happens should be determined at the browser.
I once taught a class on searching the web, one of the challenges during that class was explaining that when the user mistyped a search engines address and still got a search engine that something bad had happened, and they needed to correct something. This is "Service" is very confusing and time-draining for all parties.
You might also ponder the problem of explaining why they now have a picture of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee getting down on their screen, in a public educational facility, having only done exactly as I told them (or so they think at the time).
In short, Verisign have done a wrong doing by extension the fundamental problem is that domain registration agencies (at all/any level) need to restrict the practice of re-directing typos, so that users are in control of their PCs, bandwidth and personal data, and so that educators and sys-admins have sufficient control to set up their browsers in the most appropriate way for the environment.
Slashdot Mirror
.... that you ARE a hosting customer and you have a Linux box.
Torvalds notices a bug in the kernal (like the local root exploit recently) and releases a patch, or you want to apply some configuration option to the kernel to give it booster rockets, or maybe you want to give 2.6 a try.
Its my understanding (and I'm sure there are many people here who can confirm or deny this on my behalf) that these things are done by COMPILING a new KERNEL. Thats means making changes to the Source code via patches, scripts and what-not and CHANGING the Object Code to which the licence applies.
It's been noted in this thread that EV1 used to help people with this kind of thing, are they able to carry on providing this assistance? or do they have to deny all knowledge and remind you that you are "infringing SCOs copyrights" when you do this?
I should think they do, since they have acknowledged that they believe SCO has copyrights, that the material is in Linux and they have a signed a contract restricting their rights and in turn YOUR RIGHTS under the GPL.
Remember these are dedicated boxen and people will want to do a bit more with them than normal web hosting and will require superior performance and security.
Compare this situation with a host that continues to refute SCOs claims and seeks to wait until the allegations are proven. What sway have SCO to say that can or cannot apply that Kernal update? None, and in truth they will always have no sway in this becaue its all FUD!
SJG
IANAL the above is educated speculation - you decide if I speak well or ill. My opinion is just that.
I haven't reviewed the links this time around but last time I did, and quickly discovered that windows has a large market share due to widespread piracy.
I guess this will change when Microsoft begin an enforcement effort. As many people have mentioned, Iraqi's have better things to spend money on than feeding US monopolies.
I saw a BBC TV piece about the Iraqi police force. The guys on the ground are yute driving, gun weilding Iraqis, but behind the scenes there was this Armerican officer acting as what we'd call a Custody sergeant. Keeping track of prisoners, charges, and related data on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The screen of his laptop was shown in close up.
There seemed to be some process (a manual one I guess) whereby the list was updated and circulated MONTHLY. Meanwhile parents were enquiring after missing children (something they did under Saddam for different reasons) and their children couldn't be found in the spreadsheet because it either hadn't been updated or was inaccurate.
A particularly interesting scene was where the BBC journalist had to explain to the Iraqi father that the US soldiers weren't very good at spelling Iraqi names so made sure that the man wrote down the name on the spreadsheet - kind of like an involuntary alter-ego born from the seed of a yank's typo. The man then had to go to another prison and search for his son using a variety of differently spelt names.
Apparently no-one had thought of circulating a dictionary of common names, or using SOUNDEX for that matter.
Well I think there is a difference between ineffective and easily overcome. It may only take 5 minutes to come up with all the posible keys, but you are still making that effort to circumvent a form of encryption. What bugs me is the whole region code thing, thankfully, that is neither encryption or copyprotection. It is merely a (direct) attack on the rights of the consumer to use the product, with no affect on copying. Thus this Act shouldn't affect multi-region DVDs AFAIK. IANAL. To turn the problem around, has anyone any news that would indicate the illegality of region zone restrictions?
Well, actually I care about privacy, but thats not why I am posting. I see both power-users and eventually all users getting mightily annoyed by the fact that their web browser can now no-longer determine whether a typo has occured or not, and control the response.
Of course there are many options. Power users for example might prefer a short neat error message, either in-page or pop-up. Newbies might prefer a search service. What happens should be determined at the browser.
I once taught a class on searching the web, one of the challenges during that class was explaining that when the user mistyped a search engines address and still got a search engine that something bad had happened, and they needed to correct something. This is "Service" is very confusing and time-draining for all parties.
You might also ponder the problem of explaining why they now have a picture of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee getting down on their screen, in a public educational facility, having only done exactly as I told them (or so they think at the time).
In short, Verisign have done a wrong doing by extension the fundamental problem is that domain registration agencies (at all/any level) need to restrict the practice of re-directing typos, so that users are in control of their PCs, bandwidth and personal data, and so that educators and sys-admins have sufficient control to set up their browsers in the most appropriate way for the environment.
Regs GJ