You don't understand. Hopefully the USSC does NOT hear this case. If they refuse to hear it, the current ruling stands.
I believe the GP meant that without a ruling from the SCOTUS, this decision will not be binding on other jurisdictions - it will have weight, but will not be a binding precedent. He was a bit over-enthusiastic with that "entirely meaningless" though. IANAL.
If you think that a minimum $50k investment to get in on google is not helping the small investor, then you must be high. That is chump change to 95 percent of the small investors out there.
I think we all know who is smoking crack here, and it ain't the GP. $50k is chump change to small investors? Oh, so "small" investors have what, $10m or so in shares? I seriously doubt that a "small" investor would consider $50k chump change, a term which would suggest that to lose it would be of little consequence to the investor.
I disagree with you about a "ratings system for programming." There doesn't need to be yet another thing for the gov't to use to tell us what's wrong and what is right. This technology was available when I was a kid. It was called (for the first offense) "Mom says don't watch that TV show." The second offense was no TV, at all, for X days/weeks/months.
Look buddy, whether you like it or not, a vast proportion of kids in modern society have parents without the time to police their every move. Why not introduce perfectly feasible technology to help parents do their job as they see fit? The suggested scheme isn't the government telling us what's right or wrong - it's the government telling us the content of particular shows. It is the parent who decides whether that content is "right" or "wrong" for their child.
The clock on copyrights can time out based on when the work went out of print.
This is wholly incorrect as far as I know, but I believe that the work going out of print has an effect on when the copyright (or other associated rights) passes back from the publisher to the author.
This is slightly different though, as the students were investigating flaws in a system they rely on for their own protection (as it holds their personal information and can control their physical security such as CCTVs). There isn't really any other way for them to find, much less prove the existence of, flaws in a computer system you don't have legitimate access to than to actually crack it.
This interface has already been invented by Rolf Harris:-)
You are obviously not an Aussie either; no Aussie would bring up Rolf Harris in an international public forum, except maybe to claim he isn't an Aussie.
one of the main reasons the US changed to life +70 was to keep in step with the Bern Convention.
That's how politicians get stuff like this through without being voted out of office - progressively strengthen local laws by synchronizing "upwards" with foreign laws, through FTAs and treaties like the Bern Convention. Then the US introduces the DMCA, and the EU "synchronizes" with the US... rinse, repeat.
The first time that someone unfamiliar with DRM Hell finds that they can't play one of their music recordings because the manufacturer specifically designed the unit not to play a recording for corporate reasons alone (which is is DRM is), then there will be an intense anger towards the product and the company that sold it.
Please don't state this as fact; it makes we relatively informed "consumers" complacent. Witness Macrovision analog video protection: well accepted by consumers, and these days not being able to plug your DVD player into your Video player is brushed off as a technical limitation.
I would be more confident that all this DRM crap being shoved up consumers' asses will be accepted and become the norm - unless the informed do something about it.
One guy tried to get us to delete an account claiming it was being used by someone to bid on Ebay auctions without paying.
How is this your problem/responsibility/right anyway? I'm sure ebay can and does handle this kind of abuse of their site - I really don't know why you even bothered to check the account out at all.
Yeah, basically they bought the exclusive distribution rights to it and then proceeded to... not distribute it. I don't know the exact figures, but they only showed it at something like a couple of hundred cinemas nation-wide, and not for very long either. They also pretty much didn't market it. All this was, presumeably, to prevent it competing with their own "films"... it couldn't have been about profitability - why would they have bought the rights in the first place?
They hit a snag, however, when Spirited Away won the Oscar, beating one or two of their own. They then were pretty much forced to re-release it for PR reasons (that, and the huge amount of money to be made;).
Errr, you might want to have a closer look at the Airport Express. As far as I know sound can only be transmitted to it using iTunes, so no gaming is gonna be happening through it.
In addition, being over a wireless network link it is sure to have some degree of latency, so even if it could be used with some arbitrary audio stream the audio would be out of sync with the video.
If you don't have a distribution and review process to be automated, maybe what you really want is a source code control system.
Didn't sound to me like he wanted anything of the sort. I got the impression that rather than a revision control system, he wants a metadata-driven storage/database system, with a key feature being integration into OO.org. Essentially, a quick/easy alternative to saving his documents and then loading them as BLOBs into a database with suitable categorisation metadata.
I can't offer anything to match the requirements myself, but it does sound like an interesting/useful idea.
13 torrent will become avialible in the following minutes, and their worst fears will come true.
Obviously you're joking, but I thought it worth reminding everyone else that the "powers that be" (that's the corporations, not the government, folks) aren't worried about the 0.05% of the population that are geeks using Bittorrent. It's the mainstream market finding out that they can copy their neighbours' software and music that keeps them up at night.
Even more importantly, it's the legitimisation of such activity that they really want to crush. Even if it's legal to back up one's software, they want people to think it's not, because if the plebs know they can do that, it's just a short jump to widescale copyright infringement which they fear will wrest control from their cold, dead fingers.
steve
Just because something doesn't originally come out of a customer's mouth, at the exact right time in the development process, does not mean that it is not a requirement or constraint. I do not advocate any lack of distinction between the requirements specification and design phases; what I am saying is that if it really matters how you do something, it's usually a requirement or a constraint. I'm not talking about the minor details of the colour of a button here. Try to relate my comments to the story itself, and it might make some sense to you. I don't really know what you are trying to argue, or who you're arguing against.
This is design, not requirements. "How" the functionality they require will be implemented, is design.
We've now reached the point where the discussion turns to semantics, so it would probably be best if we agreed to disagree. However, in the name of getting in the last word;) I must say that, in my opinion, if the interface and arrangement of pages matters to the customer to any significant extent, they must be considered requirements. I'm not referring to the specific placement of elements, just the vague specifications the average customer might give - eg, "I want a page for my contact details, and a form to send me an email, and a list of all my products". If the customer cares one way or another, and it can be identified early, it's a requirement.
I still disagree. It cannot be assumed that a customer will have any understanding of anything past the superficial user interface. Sure the client may realise new requirements, both essential and "nice-to-have", if involved in the design/prototyping phase, but this is just part of ongoing requirements elicitation.
I agree that involving the customer in the design phase, IF he or she has a clue what you are talking about, is a good thing, but it should not be essential to the customer receiving most or all of the functionality desired (and not paying for functionality they don't want).
Anything and everything to do with how the application/site works for the user should be discussed and formally specified during the requirements phase, which to me appears to be what was missing in the OP's situation. He's talking about the interface, the arrangement of information into pages, the functionality provided by the site - not the design- and implementation-level differences of whether this functionality is provided using static pages, PHP, JSP, or whatever.
... have a very small viewing window? I never actually played it, but from screenshots it didn't look to be on the same level as doom. Certainly it seemed to have most of the elements though.
Yes, good examples of appropriate uses of technology in these sorts of places - but the OP has a point. 9 times out of 10, stories like this on slashdot ARE about complete wastes of money.
If you really do mean Design though, I fail to see how this is relevant. All that matters to the client is what the site does for him and his customers - which should be in the requirements spec.
Slashdot Mirror
I believe the GP meant that without a ruling from the SCOTUS, this decision will not be binding on other jurisdictions - it will have weight, but will not be a binding precedent. He was a bit over-enthusiastic with that "entirely meaningless" though. IANAL.
steve
Better than K5, where useful discussion and diaries are drowned out by an avalanche of trolls...
steve
If you think that a minimum $50k investment to get in on google is not helping the small investor, then you must be high. That is chump change to 95 percent of the small investors out there.
I think we all know who is smoking crack here, and it ain't the GP. $50k is chump change to small investors? Oh, so "small" investors have what, $10m or so in shares? I seriously doubt that a "small" investor would consider $50k chump change, a term which would suggest that to lose it would be of little consequence to the investor.
steve
Even if they give their consent to have it played on TV, it seems like most of them are too out of it to know what's going on...
steve
Look buddy, whether you like it or not, a vast proportion of kids in modern society have parents without the time to police their every move. Why not introduce perfectly feasible technology to help parents do their job as they see fit? The suggested scheme isn't the government telling us what's right or wrong - it's the government telling us the content of particular shows. It is the parent who decides whether that content is "right" or "wrong" for their child.
steve
This is wholly incorrect as far as I know, but I believe that the work going out of print has an effect on when the copyright (or other associated rights) passes back from the publisher to the author.
steve
This is slightly different though, as the students were investigating flaws in a system they rely on for their own protection (as it holds their personal information and can control their physical security such as CCTVs). There isn't really any other way for them to find, much less prove the existence of, flaws in a computer system you don't have legitimate access to than to actually crack it.
steve
You're obviously not an Aussie.
This interface has already been invented by Rolf Harris :-)
You are obviously not an Aussie either; no Aussie would bring up Rolf Harris in an international public forum, except maybe to claim he isn't an Aussie.
steve
That's how politicians get stuff like this through without being voted out of office - progressively strengthen local laws by synchronizing "upwards" with foreign laws, through FTAs and treaties like the Bern Convention. Then the US introduces the DMCA, and the EU "synchronizes" with the US... rinse, repeat.
steve
Please don't state this as fact; it makes we relatively informed "consumers" complacent. Witness Macrovision analog video protection: well accepted by consumers, and these days not being able to plug your DVD player into your Video player is brushed off as a technical limitation.
I would be more confident that all this DRM crap being shoved up consumers' asses will be accepted and become the norm - unless the informed do something about it.
steve
How is this your problem/responsibility/right anyway? I'm sure ebay can and does handle this kind of abuse of their site - I really don't know why you even bothered to check the account out at all.
steve
I dunno, is there?
They hit a snag, however, when Spirited Away won the Oscar, beating one or two of their own. They then were pretty much forced to re-release it for PR reasons (that, and the huge amount of money to be made ;).
steve
steve
Errr, you might want to have a closer look at the Airport Express. As far as I know sound can only be transmitted to it using iTunes, so no gaming is gonna be happening through it.
In addition, being over a wireless network link it is sure to have some degree of latency, so even if it could be used with some arbitrary audio stream the audio would be out of sync with the video.
steve
Didn't sound to me like he wanted anything of the sort. I got the impression that rather than a revision control system, he wants a metadata-driven storage/database system, with a key feature being integration into OO.org. Essentially, a quick/easy alternative to saving his documents and then loading them as BLOBs into a database with suitable categorisation metadata.
I can't offer anything to match the requirements myself, but it does sound like an interesting/useful idea.
steve
13 torrent will become avialible in the following minutes, and their worst fears will come true. Obviously you're joking, but I thought it worth reminding everyone else that the "powers that be" (that's the corporations, not the government, folks) aren't worried about the 0.05% of the population that are geeks using Bittorrent. It's the mainstream market finding out that they can copy their neighbours' software and music that keeps them up at night. Even more importantly, it's the legitimisation of such activity that they really want to crush. Even if it's legal to back up one's software, they want people to think it's not, because if the plebs know they can do that, it's just a short jump to widescale copyright infringement which they fear will wrest control from their cold, dead fingers. steve
CDRs don't use pits and lands, they use dyes which change colour, and thus reflect the read laser differently, when "burned". steve
Just because something doesn't originally come out of a customer's mouth, at the exact right time in the development process, does not mean that it is not a requirement or constraint. I do not advocate any lack of distinction between the requirements specification and design phases; what I am saying is that if it really matters how you do something, it's usually a requirement or a constraint. I'm not talking about the minor details of the colour of a button here. Try to relate my comments to the story itself, and it might make some sense to you. I don't really know what you are trying to argue, or who you're arguing against.
We've now reached the point where the discussion turns to semantics, so it would probably be best if we agreed to disagree. However, in the name of getting in the last word ;) I must say that, in my opinion, if the interface and arrangement of pages matters to the customer to any significant extent, they must be considered requirements. I'm not referring to the specific placement of elements, just the vague specifications the average customer might give - eg, "I want a page for my contact details, and a form to send me an email, and a list of all my products". If the customer cares one way or another, and it can be identified early, it's a requirement.
I still disagree. It cannot be assumed that a customer will have any understanding of anything past the superficial user interface. Sure the client may realise new requirements, both essential and "nice-to-have", if involved in the design/prototyping phase, but this is just part of ongoing requirements elicitation.
I agree that involving the customer in the design phase, IF he or she has a clue what you are talking about, is a good thing, but it should not be essential to the customer receiving most or all of the functionality desired (and not paying for functionality they don't want).
Anything and everything to do with how the application/site works for the user should be discussed and formally specified during the requirements phase, which to me appears to be what was missing in the OP's situation. He's talking about the interface, the arrangement of information into pages, the functionality provided by the site - not the design- and implementation-level differences of whether this functionality is provided using static pages, PHP, JSP, or whatever.
steve
... have a very small viewing window? I never actually played it, but from screenshots it didn't look to be on the same level as doom. Certainly it seemed to have most of the elements though.
Yes, good examples of appropriate uses of technology in these sorts of places - but the OP has a point. 9 times out of 10, stories like this on slashdot ARE about complete wastes of money.
If you really do mean Design though, I fail to see how this is relevant. All that matters to the client is what the site does for him and his customers - which should be in the requirements spec.